It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work

“It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work” by Jason Fried and David Hansson

My Notes

Intro

• people are spending more time “working”, but getting less done
• there are way too many distractions and useless work happening
• for people to be effective, they need more uninterrupted work time
• meetings should be a last resort
• the book is split into tons of mini chapters with little tips on how to keep work calm
• below i’ve condensed each chapter into an actionable tip (sometimes the chapter titles were great tips in themselves)

Tips

1. treat your company like a product
2. curve your ambition, don’t try to tackle too much
3. “at all costs” leadership encourages burnout, don’t do this
4. chasing goals and numbers opens you up to make compromises
5. you are probably not changing the world, just focus on making your solution better
6. plan for 6 weeks ahead, not 6 months (agile)
7. being uncomfortable isn’t a virtue, when things are uncomfortable that is a time to dig deeper and understand
8. defend your time!
9. protect what matters most: your employees’ time and attention
10. get full hours, not fractured ones
11. effective > productive
12. working endlessly isn’t a virtue; work efficiently and effectively
13. work typically doesn’t happen at work
14. keep office hours to avoid middle-of-the-day distractions
15. meetings should be a last resort
16. you shouldn’t have to broadcast your whereabouts
17. “eventual responses” > “immediate responses”
18. JOMO (joy of missing out) > FOMO (fear of missing out)
19. describing your coworkers as family opens you up to abusing people’s time
20. people follow the leader, be careful the habits/processes you demonstrate
21. all relationships have a “trust battery” where each interaction is +/-1; relationships start at net 0
22. as a leader, you need to be proactive about talking with employees and discovering any concerns/problems
23. the owner’s word carries a ton of weight; be careful what you say
24. respect the work you haven’t done before — it may not be as easy as you think
25. don’t cheat sleep!
26. hire based on work, don’t hire from resumes
27. nobody hits the ground running
28. ignore the “talent war”; grow and nurture the talent you have
29. don’t negotiate salaries — it produces politics which are bad for everyone
30. be careful with benefits that are more like bribes (ex: we’ll pay for dinner… encourages staying late and working more)
31. open floor plans should be treated like libraries!
32. get off the grid for a vacation; make sure employees take vacations (IMO: offer a generous amount of actual vacation days that must be used — avoid unlimited vacation which usually breeds anxiety)
33. when someone leaves or is let go, give people the real facts, no euphemisms!
34. constantly dissect and improve your processes
35. if it isn’t banter or quick discussion, write up your thoughts
36. once a deadline is set, projects can only shrink in size
37. pitch ideas with well-typed documents that give people time to consider instead of reacting immediately
38. don’t launch on Fridays
39. unchecked behavior becomes normal behavior
40. is the way you are working today the way you want to be working in a year? if not, then change it!
41. remove dependencies between teams and products; you’re still moving in the same direction, but don’t create artificial blocks that slow things down
42. “i disagree, but let’s commit”; consensus slows things down and often isn’t necessary
43. MVP is okay
44. after a brief period of exploration on a problem, make a decision and go!
45. nothing or “no action” is an option that might be worth considering for certain problems
46. it’s possible to over optimize and shave your resources/effort too thin (ex: 2 minute response times)
47. unless you’ve done the best practice before, then telling others to use the best practice based on assumptions is a bad idea
48. don’t say “whatever it takes”, instead ask “what will it take?”
49. essentialism!
50. teams of three are the best (ex: 2 programmers and a design)
51. don’t pull people off of projects for the “new idea”; wait until the new idea bakes for a little while and current projects finish… then consider it
52. if you say “no” now, then you can always say “yes” later; if you say “yes” now it is much harder to undo
53. take calculated risks
54. find creative ways to break the monotony of work as seasons/projects change
55. keep costs in check, don’t go into the red
56. selling to enterprise opens you up to brown nosing business practices and “priority customers” which ultimately hurts the product
57. launch and learn
58. don’t make business promises — they pile up like debt and accrue interest
59. to be calm, you have to forget worrying about copycats, focus on making your product better
60. you don’t have to force everyone to update to the newest version
61. initially you play offense only, but once you grow your business, you have to play defense too
62. if you take the “it’s not big deal” approach to a problem, then the customer or other person takes the “it’s the end of the world” approach
63. aim for sustainability and profitability

Full Notes

Your Company is a Product

• companies should evolve like your product does; you should constantly iterate towards better processes; “we’re on version 57 of our company”
• many companies use the processes that are hot when they start but they never change
• a calm company is a destination and its counterintuitive to most of what you hear; you’ll have to be persistent and make small changes towards it overtime

Curve Your Ambition

• fight against the “hustle” and work smarter not harder
• IMO “I spent an entire week of sleepless nights to get it done is actually much less intelligent of a decision than I spent a normal work week to get in done” <— find ways to be productive with the right amount of time and then go and enjoy your life; it will make you a better employee anyways

Happy Pacifists

• when “winning at business” is akin to a war, then it is no wonder that people will take a “whatever it takes” mentality and end up burning their employees in the long run

Our Goal: No Goals

• chasing goals and numbers often comes at the expense of compromising quality and honesty
• IMO no goals is a misnomer; they still care about determining how to be profitable, how to make their product better, and how to make their company better to work at — but that is where it stops

Don’t Change the World

• business world is suffering from disruption hyperinflation — most companies aren’t disrupting everything
• strive to do a good job and make your product better and maybe one day it will be a pretty awesome company, change some things, and you’ll be happier in the long run

“6-Week Plans, Not 6-Month”

• they do short term planning for their upcoming 6 weeks, and that is it
• any longer term planning instills a false sense of hope and pressures you to stick with a plan just because you made it (and not because it still makes sense at the time of execution)

Comfy School

• “always be uncomfortable/striving” doesn’t really sound that effective; instead, they recommend that a moment something doesn’t feel right that is a moment to back off and dive deeper into understanding or figuring out the problem
• ^ and that sounds much better than just being uncomfortable for the sake of being uncomfortable (because it might make your more successful)

Defend Your Time

• a flight from Chicago to London is about 8 hours, so why does it feel longer than your workday? Because the flight is uninterrupted time… in other words if you had 8 hours of uninterrupted time at work that is plenty to do a good job
• if you find yourself going over the 40 hours, then you should figure out where you are wasting time and make that go faster (or don’t do it) instead of cramming and overextending yourself

Protectionism

• protect what matters most: your employees’ time and attention
• a 1 hour meeting w/ 8 peoples costs 8 hours; so only hold meetings if absolutely necessary
• use something like Google’s “Snippets” system for updating; or if you do scrum, then keep those standup’s SUPER SHORT

“Get Full Hours, Not Fractured Ones”

• it is hard to be productive with fractured hours
• context switching is really expensive… avoid it!

“Effective > Productive”

• don’t focus on “being busy”
• avoiding something that isn’t worth your time is much better than doing something that isn’t worth your time
• if you only needed 3 hours of work to get done what you had scheduled for the day, then go ahead and take the rest of the day off — this one is really audacious ;)!

The “Outwork” Myth

• excessive work is not a good work ethic; instead, a good work ethic should be centered around getting the job done effectively — and that has so many factors involved other than the amount of time you put into it
• [my thoughts] remember: an experienced painter could give you a great piece of art, that fits the bill, in maybe an hour… are you going to hold against them that they didn’t slave over it for 40 hours… no… as long as they deliver what you expect; you have to find a way as a painter to respect your time, the customers time, and the work that is being asked of you

Work Doesn’t Happen at Work

• most offices are distraction factories… you wonder why people can’t get any work done there
• make sure to have distraction free zones or places that you can go

Office Hours

• post your own office hours and don’t be loose about it; experts don’t need to be interrupted!

“Meetings are a Last Resort”

• meetings should be a last resort; make it really hard for someone to set a meeting with you

The Presence Prism

• you shouldn’t have to broadcast your whereabouts — knowing someone’s whereabouts or not knowing them are about equal in predicting whether the job is getting done (especially w/ digital work)

I’ll Get Back to You Whenever

• the expectation of an immediate response SHOULD NOT be the normal
• emergencies are one thing, but in general work REALLY hard to make “eventual responses” the norm, not “immediate responses”
• try only checking messages and emails once in the morning

“JOMO (Joy of Missing Out)”

• you don’t need to know everything… almost all of it isn’t important
• read the heartbeats or release notes
• ^ if you are a manager, then you can write one of these up once a week (but don’t spend too much time on it, just the highlights, don’t worry about the fancy charts)

We’re CoWorkers, Not Family

• by defining the company “as a family”, you open yourself up to the creep of working way too many hours and work becoming crazy

They’ll Do As You Do

• it starts at the top, people do what you do

The Trust Battery

• this is a “-50 to +50 summary” of all the interactions with another person on a 1-to-1 basis; you start at net 0

Don’t Be the Last to Know

• ask real, pointed questions
• having an “open door policy” is a cop-out, you need to talk with people to encourage that kind of communication

The Owner’s Word Weighs a Ton

• owners and managers should practice a heavy amount of restraint because what they say will certainly dictate how others follow
• “it was just a suggestion” is a cop-out too
• don’t try to be involved in everything; don’t micromanage

Low-Hanging Fruit Can Still Be Out-of-Reach

• most work is a grind: respect the work you haven’t done before, and if you haven’t done it before don’t assume there is a bunch of low-hanging fruit

Don’t Cheat Sleep

• being short on sleep lowers your IQ and turns the astute into a-holes
• a great night’s sleep enhances every waking hour
• all-nighters are a red flag

Hire the Work, Not the Resume

• hiring poorly is the worst thing you can do; it has rippling effects
• give candidates (after screening) real work to do and see what they can do; throw the resumes in the trash, who cares where they went to school or what “they said” they can do

Nobody Hits the Ground Running

• don’t set unreasonable expectations; even in the best case, it will take people some time to adjust to their new surroundings and start being effective

Ignore the “Talent War”

• finding “natural talent” is the wrong move; grow and nurture your talent

Don’t Negotiate Your Salaries

• same role, same level, same salary — there is no negotiation or anxiety
• if you want to get paid more, you have a clear trajectory: grow to the next level

Benefits Who?

• be careful with benefits that are more bribes (to stay late and work more)
• example of good benefits: paid vacations, three-day weekends in the summer, paid 1-month sabbaticals every 3 years, $1000/year for continued education (it can be on anything), $2000/year charity match, pay for people’s fitness stuff/membership
• use benefits to encourage people to live and enjoy live

Library Rules

• distractions are like viruses in open-planned offices
• think of open-planned offices like LIBRARIES! ah-ha!
• use the library rules

No Vacations

• get off the grid for a vacation
• ambiguity breeds anxiety
• offer a really generous amount of vacation days and use it as a guideline; be on the honor system (this is what encourages true vacation)

Calm Goodbyes

• when someone leaves, give people the real facts, no euphemisms!

Dissect Your Process

• continually evaluate your processes

If It’s Not Banter or Quick Stuff, Then Write it Up

• chat is exhausting
• if everyone needs to see it, chat isn’t the best place

Deadlines

• Once deadline is set, projects can only shrink in size
• Team that is doing the work has control over the work
• Set a budget of time and then let the team work within it instead of saying how long do you think this might take? i.e. you have 3 weeks to make a calendar feature that is awesome, go!

Don’t Be a Knee Jerk

• pitch ideas with a well-typed document and then give people time to consider it (instead of pitching a meeting room and getting immediate reactions)

Watch Out for 12-Day Weeks

• don’t launch on Fridays

The New Normal

• unchecked behavior becomes normal behavior
• it is a lot harder to undo bad behavior that has become normal than it is to just fix from the onset

Bad Habits Beat Good Intentions

• is the way you are working today the way you want to be working in a year? If not, then change it now

Remove Dependencies

• you don’t have to wait for iOS to release Android

Commitment Not Consensus

• I disagree, but let’s commit

Compromise on Quality

• MVP is okay

Narrow as You Go

• after a brief period of exploration on a problem, make a decision and go!
• don’t keep yourself open to endless exploration, remember you want to have a complete project at the end of 6 weeks

Why Not Nothing?

• sometimes not changing something is a good option (not forcing users to update)

It’s Enough

• it’s possible to over optimize or shave too thin (ex: 2 minute response times)

Worst Practices

• unless you’ve done the practice, telling others to use the best practice based on assumptions is a bad idea
• many best practices apply to specific situations and may not work for you — doesn’t mean they aren’t worth trying but don’t place your stock in them until they work for you
• find what works for you and make that better

Whatever It Takes

• instead ask “what will it take?”

Have Less to Do

• essentialism
• sometimes it might make sense to get rid of a feature (to trade it) for time (ex: we no longer accept checks)

Three’s Company

• team of three (2 programmers and 1 designer)
• no ties
• keeps it simple

Stick With It

• avoid pulling people off of projects for the “new idea”
• make all new ideas “bake” for a little while (a week minimum) before deciding or redirecting effort there
• remember projects last a max of 6 weeks, so you can redirect efforts once your done with the current project

Know “No”

• if you say “no” now, then you can always say “yes” later

Mind Your Business

• take calculated risks

Seasons Greetings

• find creative ways to break the monotony of work (less hours in the summer, pay down technical debt on the summers, big projects in the winter, etc)

Calm is in the Black

• keep costs in check
• get into green profit margin ASAP

Price to Lose

• it’s much easier to do the right thing when your product isn’t priced in such a way that there are big customers who make or break you
• selling to enterprise opens you up to brown nosing business practices

Launch and Learn

• launch frequently and learn; the company that learns the fastest will win
• listen to the market more closely than simulated testers

Promise Not to Promise

• promises pile up like debt and accrue interest

Copycats

• to be calm, you have to forget worrying about copycats, focus on making your product better

Change Control

• basecamp took the route of supporting multiple versions of their software instead of forcing everyone to update to the newest version
• ^ their logic behind this is that people are reluctant to forced change

Startups are Easy, Stay Ups are Hard

• business gets harder after launch
• initially you play offense only, but once you grow you have to play defense too

No Big Deal or The End of the World

• if you take the “it’s not big deal” approach to a problem, then the customer or other person takes the “it’s the end of the world” approach
• people want to be heard and respected

The Good Ole Days

• aim for sustainability and profitability