
Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals - KrisJordan
http://www.krisjordan.com/2008/09/17/jason-fried-10-things-weve-learned-at-37signals/
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njharman
> Not afraid that people will take their ideas and build a restaurant right
> beside of them.

Really? Then how come all the bitcheness around HuddleChat How disingenuous.
(the lesson is correct, too bad they don't live by it)

I quote "We're flattered Google thinks Campfire is a great product, we're just
disappointed that they stooped so low to basically copy it feature for
feature, layout for layout," said 37Signals founder Jason Fried.

I know HN is suppose to be a cuddlefest where only the "right kind" of people
are but I really think you guys need a devil's advocate post once in awhile to
shine some reality on your rampant fanboyism.

~~~
axod
The funniest thing for me was that campfire and huddlechat didn't really have
any features or layout. It's a chatroom!

Google lost so much credibility taking huddlechat down IMHO.

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edw519
Wow, there is so much wisdom here, I don't know where to start. So I'll just
say that I have encountered almost every one of these situations at one point
or another, and Jason is almost dead on.

The most important one for me is probably #3 "Get Rid of Abstractions". I
learned this one the hard way. Now I just work on the problem at hand and
worry about how to extend it later. It's a lot easier to generalize a specific
case than to write something generalized in the first place. Could have saved
me years.

~~~
fendale
Here here - In our project, its packed with generic features - most of them
haven't be used ever and were released ages ago. Often they really complicate
the application with lookup tables and weird logic that never sees the light
of day, 'just incase'!

~~~
pc
I think you mean "Hear, hear".

~~~
fendale
Hear, hear indeed - It was 11pm after a long day when I wrote that, but I
won't make the same mistake again, lol!

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newmediaclay
I'm a huge fan of 37 signals' products and company philosophy. I bet this
presentation is going to be the total opposite of most people speaking at the
conference - I mean who else is going to get up there and talk about "Planning
is vastly overrated" and "Underdoing."

Most presenters are going to focus on all of the amazing features their
products offer...however, 37 signals is still more successful than 95% of
those other companies.

~~~
KrisJordan
Was a highly dynamic and fast moving presentation. Was impressed with Jason's
delivery. Definitely a rock star of Web 2.0 as the house was packed. He makes
the ideas sound even better than they read on SvN and Getting Real.

~~~
staunch
Which really makes me want to see the video. Anyone know if it's up anywhere?

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sfamiliar
#6 is the one that resonates most strongly with me. in my last position there
was one of these tiny-dog managers that'd pop in every 15 minutes or so and
ask if something was done. at which point i'd spend five minutes explaining
why it wasn't. he was the single biggest hindrance to my productivity.
managers, don't be that guy. watch the trac task list if you must. don't
harass the developers.

#3 - i take a little issue with this one, but not much. if it's
straightforward to make something a little more flexible, the payoff is
generally good. this depends on a few things: how sure are you that you'll be
moving in that direction, how much work is it to add in the extra flex, how
difficult will it be to connect up later?

it's worth thinking about, if only for a few minutes. the payoff could be
huge, and even it's not, it's rarely wasted time.

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aschobel
"13. Give up on hard problems - there is nothing wrong with being lazy. There
is an abundance of easy problems that need to be solved. The really hard
problems are probably better left to your competitors. Solve a bunch of simple
things. Most people’s problems are simple and you can probably solve 10 in a
month over 1 in 10 months."

Hard problems are a lot more fun to solve. How do you attract top talent if
you are only solving easy things?

~~~
unalone
They're more fun, BUT they result in more work being done for less of a
benefit.

Look at the sites that have succeeded the most and you'll see that they all
solve basic problems, and that's resulted in most of them making tons of
money. More specialized sites are more fascinating, but they attract fewer
people and tend to be much less successful in absolute terms.

~~~
aschobel
It also depends on what kind of hard problems you are tackling.

YouTube solved the video codec Gordian knot, Google did the same with relevant
search. Not easy problems, but they have huge benefits.

~~~
unalone
Exactly. Those are resultant problems from a fairly simple opening idea.
YouTube: how can we put video online? Google: how can we make searches
relevant?

And, while the details are usually tricky, I find that Google's solutions to
problems tend to always be brilliantly simple. Like their translate features:
they figure out a basic problem and they solve it simply and often
unexpectedly. Calling it a Gordion knot is actually the perfect description,
yeah.

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michaelmurphy
#1 resonates most strongly with me right now. The feeling of accomplishment
when you complete a project creates that sense of momentum and excitement
going into the next one.

Like Jason, I've noticed that quality of work seemingly diminishes toward the
end of a long project when people are motivated mostly to simply complete the
project.

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13ren
_Target nonconsumption_

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mhartl
#11 (15?): Almost everybody is going to spell "37signals" wrong no matter how
famous we get.

