Rework

Jason Fried · David Heinemeier Hansson

Mar 2010 · Sold by Crown Currency

About this ebook

Rework shows you a better, faster, easier way to succeed in business. 

Most business books give you the same old advice: Write a business plan, study the competition, seek investors, yadda yadda. If you're looking for a book like that, put this one back on the shelf.

Read it and you'll know why plans are actually harmful, why you don't need outside investors, and why you're better off ignoring the competition. The truth is, you need less than you think. You don't need to be a workaholic. You don't need to staff up. You don't need to waste time on paperwork or meetings. You don't even need an office. Those are all just excuses. 

What you really need to do is stop talking and start working. This book shows you the way. You'll learn how to be more productive, how to get exposure without breaking the bank, and tons more counterintuitive ideas that will inspire and provoke you.

With its straightforward language and easy-is-better approach, Rework is the perfect playbook for anyone who’s ever dreamed of doing it on their own. Hardcore entrepreneurs, small-business owners, people stuck in day jobs they hate, victims of "downsizing," and artists who don’t want to starve anymore will all find valuable guidance in these pages.

Ratings and reviews

Provides motivation to find work that allows for flexibility for people who like using tech to their advantage and not only social media. Staying in a 8 to 12 hour position does not really get work done in an office environment. Even in a physical environment many get the hours when there is nothing much to do but get disciplined for being on a phone then find work that is not really work or productive to a business. Corporate management is something full of themselves. -Just some thoughts that came across while posting about this book.

Rework is an off-the-cuff kick in the pants to anyone building a startup. The book's edgy style and no-nonsense attitude force you to think about the future of your business very carefully. The book's authors advocate running a very lean, low-cost, small company with a focus on agility and connection to customers. Although some of their philosophy seems to run counter to the "Four Steps to the Epiphany" model, the two books interact very well together. A great book - it has certainly influenced how I think about the future of my company.

Anyone who has worked in middle management has likely, at one time or another, had their big boss pass out some dopey management books that especially touched the hamster-brained sociopath (as Scott Adams would say) who was in charge of operations. And who hasn't been subjected to the 8 stupidest management fads of all time, which required a one- or two-day seminar to hammer home the latest business gospel? Remember TQM ("Total Quality Management")? "Potbellied managers running around with little colored belts like they're part of some Bruce Lee movie on Bizarro world," Geoffrey James describes. "You couldn't make up this stuff, it's so incredibly stupid." And I especially remember "Management by Consensus," described by James as "swimming in a pool of quicksand." And who knew that Rudy Giuliani, Attila the Hun, George W. Bush, and Jesus had so many management and leadership secrets? I remember a copy of Who Moved My Cheese? being forced upon me. A book so profound that it spawned Who Moved My Cheese? for Teens, Who Moved My Cheese? For Kids, Nobody Moved Your Cheese!, Who Cut the Cheese?, Who Made My Cheese?, Who Moved My Secret?, Who Moved My Soap?, and Who Moved My Church?. So I don't go seeking out management books. But two of the founders of 37signals, a company that is now a software firm after beginning in 1999 as a web-design company, wrote a book called Rework as a byproduct of other work they were doing. Rework, by Jason Fried and David Hansson, is a bestseller. Fried and Hansson's first book (with Matthew Linderman), Getting Real, was also a byproduct; it earned the company $1 million directly, according to the authors, and another million bucks indirectly. Henry Ford did the same when he used the excess wood scraps that were generated by car production to make charcoal — a practice that later spun off to become Kingsford Charcoal. Fried and Hansson have written a management book for the 21st century that's cut into dozens of tiny chapters. They tell us first to ignore the real world: it's not a place at all, but an excuse. And that whole learning-from-mistakes idea? Overrated. Strategic plans? Budgets? Quit guessing: it's OK to wing it. Blindly following a plan that amounts to little more than a wild-assed guess is what's risky. Every businessperson thinks they must grow their company. Why? Maybe a small operation is just right, say the authors. They hate the term entrepreneur, saying it's "outdated and loaded with baggage," preferring the word "starters" to describe those who start businesses. Forget the fancy suits, briefcases, and high tolerance for risk; all it takes is an idea, they say early in the book. But the key they give us at the end. Ideas last forever; it's inspiration that's perishable. Got an idea? Do it now. And do things that matter. "Make a dent in the universe." The 37signals guys say everyone has ideas. They "are cheap and plentiful." It's what you do with them that matters. It takes capital and execution. So where do you get the capital? Use other people's money as a last resort. "Before you stick your head in that noose, look for another way." You likely don't need as much money as you think to get going. Once you have the business going, interruptions must be avoided; they are productivity killers, as are meetings. Get some sleep, get some quick wins and remember that good enough is fine and nobody can estimate worth a darn. By the way, software developers evidently talk like truck drivers, so be forewarned that the language in Rework is occasionally spicy. Like many ideas in the book, "Welcome Obscurity" seems counterintuitive. But the authors rightly point out that as your enterprise gets bigger and more popular, you will tend to be more and more conservative. "It's harder to take risks," they write. "That's when things start to fossilize and change becomes

About the author

Jason Fried is the cofounder and president of Basecamp (formerly 37signals), a privately held Chicago-based company committed to building the best web-based tools possible with the least number of features necessary. With David Heinemeier Hansson, Fried is the coauthor of Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Successful Web Application; Remote: Office Not Required; and the New York Times bestseller Rework.

David Heinemeier Hansson is a partner at Basecamp (formerly 37signals), a privately held Chicago-based company committed to building the best web-based tools possible with the least number of features necessary. With Jason Fried, Hansson is the coauthor of Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Successful Web Application; Remote: Office Not Required; and the New York Times bestseller Rework.