Rework — notes to myself

This is summary of the book Rework — Change the way you work forever by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson

I am trying to a create a summary of the book for my reference. I will use original text from the book and also my understanding and thoughts around it.

The book has been a revelation for me in terms, what we are made to believe and act upon principally in the professional world. It takes some very basic day to day practices and breaks them down and helps the reader understand why they do not make sense, both practically and logically. The fundamental foundation of the book is how an organisation or team can make itself efficient and culturally strong while competing with best in the world.

Don’t believe when people say it will not work in the real world. The real world isn’t a place, it’s an excuse. It is a justification for not trying, it has nothing to do with you.

Learning from mistakes is a misconception. What you learn from your mistakes is not how to do it again, still not how to do it the right way. Contrast that learning from success ( how much the world believes in 2nd time entrepreneurs successful the 1st time). It is also how nature works. Evolution doesn’t linger on past failures, it is always building upon what worked.

(Long) Planning is guess work. There are too many factors working along side which are bound to fail a plan too long. Plan but plan short and concise. Short plan cycles makes you more decisive and nimble. Author goes to say work without a plan to which I do not completely agree.

Don’t make assumption on how big you should be ahead of time. Don’t sacrifice the agility and flexibility of being small in order to grow big. Frugality is an important virtue to have.

Workaholism is a stupid idea, it creates structures where people put more hours to problems and rather than being more efficient. Avoid the burnout crash. Workaholics aren’t heroes. They don’t save the day, they use it up. They start eating the efficiency factor in the culture.

If you are going to do something, do something that matters. And do it urgently. One of the ways is scratch your itch, find things which solve your own problems and you will fall in love with what you are making. You will be working on things like these for years to come and it better be something you really care about.

Ideas are cheap and plentiful. The real question is how well you execute, so get into the field and start doing.

Don’t protect your ego with excuse of time, perfect time never comes.

Have strong backbone for your ideas, believe in what you are doing and you need to be willing to fight for it. Strong stands also attract super fans, they point to you and defend you. And strong opinions aren’t free. If no one is upset with what you are saying, you are probably not pushing hard enough.

Strong belief and stands drives decisions rather arguments and debates.

Set up uncompromising lines for your beliefs (be it your business or product and principles). Do what you believe and stand for, and not for the sake of satisfying the world. Belief is easier to defend. Also standing for something isn’t about writing it on the wall, it is about living it.

[[[[Raising external funds is plan Z. (Debatable of course, also depends on the kind of business you are trying to build.)

You give up control

Product quality takes a back seat in comparison to “cashing out” (investor mindset)

Spending other people’s money is always addictive.

It is usually a bad deal.

Customer move down the totem pole and investors up

Raising money is incredibly distracting and time consuming. ]]]

Spend what is necessary, always ask for yourself if you really need it. Start a business, not a start up. Talk about commitment strategy and not exit strategy, plan to build and not to sell.

Have less mass to carry along, allows free and agile movement and keeps you frugal. Embrace constraints.

PROGRESS

Don’t do multiple things at the same time, cut you ambition in half. You are better off with a kiss ass half, rather than a half-assed whole. Lots of things get better as they get shorter.

When building a product always start/focus at epicenter, rather than multiple things which will be pulling you in multiple directions.

Ignore the details early on, details make the difference but getting infatuated with details too early on leads to disagreements, meetings and delays. Besides, you often can’t recognise the details that matter most until you start building.

Decision are progress -> when you put off decisions, they pile up. And piles end up ignored, dealt with in haste, or thrown out. Commit to making decision, don’t wait for perfect solutions. Decide and move forward. You want to get into the rhythm of making choices.

You can’t build on top of “We’ll decide later”, but you can build on top of “Done”

Constantly look for things to remove, simplify and streamline, be a curator. A curator is involved, making conscious decision about what should stay and what should go.

Throw less at problems. When things aren’t working, the natural inclination is to throw more at the problems. More people, time and money. If you start pushing back deadlines and increasing your budget, you’ll never stop. Cut back — you will be forces to make tough calls and sort out what truly matters.

Focus on what won’t change. For a tech start up, it can be speed, simplicity, ease of use and clarity.

Tone is in your fingers. It never about the car, it is always about the driver. Don’t use equipment as crutch.

Sell your by-products. Observant and creative business minds spot these by-products and see opportunities. Getting real or Rework are by products of author building a company.

Launch now. Don’t hold everything else up due to a few leftovers. Doing them later may mean doing them better, too. Build the necessities now and think about the luxuries later.

PRODUCTIVITY

Get the chisel out and start making something real. Everything else is distraction.

Some questions to ask that you are doing work that matters:

• Why are you doing this?
• What problems are you solving?
• Is this actually useful?
• Are you adding value?
• Will this change behaviour?
• Is there an easier way?
• What could you be doing instead?
• Is this really worth it?

Sometimes abandoning what you are working on is the right move, even if you have put in a lot of effort. Don’t throw good time at bad work.

Interruption is the enemy of productivity. Interruption is not collaboration, it is just interruption and when interrupted, you are not getting work done. For e.g,. decree a time 10–2, people can’t talk to each other. Instead of casual Friday, have no talk Thursday. A successful alone time means letting go of all the communication, giving instant messages, phone calls, emails and meetings.

Meetings are toxic.

• They are usually about words and abstract concepts, not real things.
• The usually convey an abysmally small amount of information per minute.
• They drift off-subject quite easy.
• They require thorough preparation that most people don’t have time for.
• They frequently have agendas so vague that no body is really sure of the goal.
• They often include at least one moron who inevitably gets his turn to waste everyone’s time with nonsense.
• Meetings procreate.

If they are absolutely needed, some ground rules:

• Set a timer. When it rings, meeting is over. Period.
• Invite as few people as possible.
• Always have a clear agenda.
• Begin with a specific problem.
• Meet at site of the problem, instead of a conference room.
• End with a solution and make someone responsible for implementing it.
• Set meeting slots in Fibonacci series — start from 5 mins.

Don’t try for perfection early, judo solutions work in most scenarios. Good enough is fine.

Quick wins. The way you build momentum is getting something done and then moving onto next thing. Don’t wait for too long — you will smother your sparks if you do.

Don’t be a hero, a lot of times it is better to a quitter than a hero. Sometimes an obvious solution is starting you in the face but you can’t see it. People automatically associate quitting with failure, but sometimes that is exactly what you should do.

Lack of sleeps leads to:

• Stubbornness
• Lack of creativity
• Diminished morale
• Irritability

Break the big things into smaller things. The smaller it is, the easier it to estimate.

Long lists are guilt trips. The longer the list of unfinished items, the worse you feel about it. And at a certain point, you just stop looking at it because it makes you feel bad. Then you stress out and the whole thing turns into a mess. Rearranging your tasks into smaller pieces that can be quickly completed, has an amazing impact on your productivity and motivation.

Make tiny decisions. Make choices that are small enough that they are effectively temporary. When you make tiny decision, you can’t make big mistakes. These small decisions mean you can afford to change. There is no big penalty if you mess. You just fix it.

COMPETITORS

Don’t copy. The problem with copying is that it skips understanding and understanding is the basis of how you grow. You have to understand why something works or why something is the way it is.

De commoditise your product. Pour yourself into the product and everything around your product too: how you sell it, how you support it, how you explain it, and how you deliver it. Competitors can never copy the you in your product.

Pick a fight. Having an enemy gives you a great story to tell. Taking a stand always stands out. People get stoked by conflicts. They take sides. Passions are ignited and that’s a good way to get people to take notice.

Under do your competition. Cold war mentality is a dead end. Defensive companies don’t think ahead, they can only think behind. They don’t lead, they follow.

Worrying about competition quickly turns into obsession. It is a pointless exercise anyway. The competitive landscape changes all the time. Focus on yourself instead. When you spend time worrying about someone else you can’t spend that time improving yourself. You can’t beat someone who is making the rules. You need to redefine the rules, not just building something slightly better.

EVOLUTION

If I’d listened to customer, I’d have given them a faster horse — Henry Ford.

Say no by default. Don’t be a jerk about saying no, though. People are surprisingly understanding when you take the time to explain your point of view.

Let your customers outgrow you. When you stick with your current customers come hell or high water, you wind up cutting yourself off the new ones. Your product or service becomes so tailored to your current customers that it stops appealing to fresh blood. Any thats how a company starts to die.

Don’t confuse enthusiasm with priority. The enthusiasm you have for a new idea is not an accurate indicator of it true worth. What seems like a sure-fire hit right now often gets downgraded to just a “nice to have” by morning. And “nice to have” isn’t worth putting everything else on hold.

Be at-home good. Instead of a in-store-good product, create a in-home good product. When you create an at-home good product, you may have to sacrifice a bit of in-store sizzle. A product that executes on the basics beautifully may not seem as sexy as competitors loaded with bells and and whistles.

Don’t write it down. There is not need for a spreadsheet, database or a filing systems. The request that really matter are the ones you’ll hear again and again. After a while you won’t be able to forget them. Your customers will be your memory. They will keep reminding you and show you which things you truly need to worry about.

PROMOTION

pg 167. Obscurity helps protects your ego and preserve your confidence. When you become a success, the pressure to maintain predictability and consistency builds.

pg 170. Build an audience. All companies have customers. Lucky companies have fans. But the most fortunate companies have audiences. When you build an audience you don’t have to buy people’s attention — they give it to you. So build an audience. Speak, write, blog, tweet, make videos — whatever.

pg 173. Out teach your competition. Instead of trying to outspend, outsell, or out sponsor your competitors, try to out-teach them. Teaching probably is something your competitors aren’t even thinking about. Most businesses focus on selling or servicing, but teaching never even occurs to them. Teach and you will form a bond you just don’t get from traditional marketing tactics. Earning their loyalty by teaching them forms a whole different connection.

pg 176 Emulate chefs. They give out recipes easily doesn’t mean there business is going down. As business owner, you should share everything you know. Give out great thoughts, nobody is going to destroy your business due to that.

pg 179 Go behind the scenes. Letting people behind the curtain changes your relationship with them. They will feel a bond with you and see you as a human being instead of a faceless company. They will see the sweat and effort that goes into what you sell. They will develop a deeper level of understanding and appreciation for what you do.

pg 182 Imperfection are real and people respond to real. Don’t worry about how you are supposed to sound or how you are supposed to act. Show the world what you are really like, warts and all. Wabi sabi values character and uniqueness over a shiny facade. It teaches that cracks and scratches in things should be embraced. Bare down to the essence but don’t remove the poetry. Keep things clean and unencumbered but don’t sterilise.

pg 185, 188 Move away from press release, everyone is doing it. Move over mass media to niche media.

pg 191 Emulate drug dealers. Don’t be afraid to give a little for free — as long as you have got something else to sell. Be confident in what you are offering.

HIRING

pg 201. DIY first. Never hire anyone to do a job until you have tried to do it yourself first. (This might become impossible after a certain size). You will know what to hire and as a manager you will know when to criticise and when to support.

pg 204 Hire when it hurts. Don’t hire for pleasure, hire to kill pain.

pg 208 Strangers at a cocktail party make small talk and shy away from serious conversation and controversial opinions. Hire a ton of people rapidly and it is the same situation. You need an environment where everyone feels safe enough to be honest when things get tough. You need to know how far you can push someone.

pg 215 The pool of great candidates is far bigger than just people who completed education with stellar GPAs.

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education — Mark Twain

pg 218. Delegators are dead weight. They love to pull people into meetings and everyone else who is pulled away gets away from real work.

pg 220 Managers of one are people who come up with their own goals and execute them. They don’t need heavy direction or daily checkins.

pg 222 Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking. Great writers know how to communicate. They make things easy to understand. They can put themselves in other shoes, they now what to omit.

pg 224 Geography just doesn’t matter anymore. Hire best talent, irrespective of where it is.

DAMAGE CONTROL

pg 231 Own you bad news. People respect you more if you are open, honest, public and more responsive during a crisis. You want your customer to be as informed as possible.

• The message should come from the top.
• Spread the message far and wide.
• “No Comment” is not an option.
• Apologise the way a real person would and explain what happened in detail.
• Honestly be concerned about fate of your stakeholders/customers.

pg 239 The number one principle to keep in mind when you apologise — how would you feel about the apology if you were on the other end?

pg 242 Everyone on the team should be connected to your customers — frequency can differ. No one should be shielded from direct criticism.

CULTURE

pg 249 Culture is by product of consistent behaviour. You can’t install a culture, you have got to give it time to develop.

pg 251 Don’t make up problems you don’t have yet. It is not a problem until it’s a real problem. Decisions you make today don’t need to last forever. Optimise for now and worry about the future later.

pg 253 Build a rockstar environment. Instead of thinking how you can land a roomful of rock stars, think about the room instead. We are all capable of bad, average and good work. The environment has a lot more to do with great work than most people realise. Rockstar environments develop out of trust, autonomy and responsibility. They are a result of giving people the privacy, workspace and tools they deserve. Great environments show respect for the people who do the work and how they do it.

pg 255 When you treat people like children, you get children’s work. Employee need to ask permission before they can do anything. When everything constantly needs approval, you create a culture of non-thinkers. You are not going to get full eight hours a day out of people anyways. People need diversions, it helps disrupt the monotony at work.

pg 258 Send people home at 5. You don’t need more hours, you need better hours. When people have something to do at home, they get down to business. They find ways to be more ways to be efficient because they have to. You want busy people, people who care about more than one thing.

pg 260 Don’t create a policy because one person did something wrong once. Policies are only meant for situation that come up over and over again.

pg 262 Sound like you. Talk to customers like you would talk to a friend. Avoid jargons or any sort of corporate speak. Don’t talk about “monetisation” or being “transparent”; talk about making money and being honest. Don’t use seven words when four will do.

pg 265 Avoid using words like need, must, can’t, easy, just, only and fast.

• Very few things actually “need” to get done.
• When you say “can’t”, you actually can.
• “Easy” is a word that is used to describe other’s people job.

“We need to add this feature. We can’t launch w/o this feature. Everyone wants it. It’s only a little thing so it will be easy. You should be able to get there fast.”

pg 268 Stop saying ASAP. Everyone wants things done as soon as they can be done. ASAP is inflationary, it devalues any request that doesn’t say ASAP. Most things don’t warrant this kind of hysteria, what they do is create artificial stress and lead to burnout and stress.

pg 271 Inspiration is perishable. Inspiration is a magical thing, a productivity multiplier, a motivator. But it won’t wait for you, it is a now thing. If it grabs you, grab it back and put it to work. When you feel inspired just go ahead and do it even if it is a Friday evening. You could get 2 weeks of work done in 24 hours.