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Jason Fried On Focus and Avoiding Interruptions
BigTimOBrien writes "Jason Fried, founder of 37signals, talks about the day-to-day operations of 37signals. How does the company work, and what are the guiding principles behind the design of Basecamp and Campfire? He talks about the importance of avoiding interruptions and the relative unimportance of both physical space and mandatory meetings."
I've never heard of the company, though I'm pretty clued up with the tech world, and I suspect others are in the same boat. FTA:
I'm not sure that Fried's philosophy will continue to hold up if 37signals grows much more, but I like his point-of-view about meetings and work flow.
I have found meetings to be an extraordinary waste of time in most cases, and often the result of lack of leadership and/or organizational ability on the part of those in charge. I was recently on the board of a very small non-for-profit charity that had weekly two-hour meetings. The "leader" of the organization claimed that he needed the two hours every week to "vision-cast," but--being a typical political flack--what he really wanted to do was hear himself talk and also to run every little matter past the board so that he could cover his ass instead of just making the decisions he was paid to make.
I quit after about ten months of that. The organization folded soon thereafter when donors stopped giving due to a ridiculous administrative overhead.
Okay.... That title is just wrong, it immediately made me wonder what sort of talkshow this 'Focus' was where Jason was fried.
I guess that goes a long way towards Fried's philosophy as well :)
Coz eternity my friend, is a long *ing time.
I don't care what Jason is fried on, getting high is not the answer.
I was getting so much done this morning before I stopped to read this article.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
It seems that he says one thing and then instantly contradicts himself. Yes, too many meetings are bad - as are interruptions (at least for the interruptee, presumably the interrupter achieves their goals). However, having someone continually IM'ing you (or whatever - all these things are basically as bad as each other) is just as much a distraction and source of interruptions.
Oh yes, and making dumb statements like
It's really hard to change that organization if you don't have the power to change it
doesn't make him sound like he knows what he's talking about - either
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Which really guts down on interruptions from employees running games and applications.
Keeps em focused.
I thought it was another Friday 13th sequel. They've done everything else to Jason without any permanent effect.
And really, "37signals" "Basecamp", "Campfire"? They could have been rap groups for all I knew.
This thread will be nothing but one big slashvertisement for some company that nobody would otherwise know or care about.
You mean, apart from the several hundred thousand readers of their blogs on management and software development.
Or indeed many people who use Ruby on Rails? They are the guys behind that. Whether you use/like it, you have probably heard of it.
Just because you don't know who they are, doesn't mean that others don't, and it doesn't stop what they have to say being interesting.
Perhaps we should have no more articles that mention any companies, just in case you don't know who they are?
Paul Leader
While I'll aggree with your main point, actually, it doesn't sound to me like he was having a lecture kind of meeting. A lecture at least involves someone, essentially, telling you, "I know how it's done, I decided it's done this way, I'll tell you in detail how." YMMV, but that's the basic idea. The meetings he's talking about, if I understood him right, are more the kind where someone doesn't want to be personally responsible for taking any decision. Quite the opposite. If he can't back out in dumbly applying some semi-irrelevant regulation or rule, he'll back out into, basically, "we all talked about it until everyone was too bored to give a shit any more, therefore we _all_ took that decision, therefore _I_ am not to blame." That is, if a decision is taken at all. Some end without anything being achieved whatsoever.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
I thought Jason was FIRED.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
The basic philosophy here is:
1. Cut the bullshit.
2. Do the work, and focus on it.
3. Make your product reflect your vision.
4. Sell to users who want simple "just works" apps.
5. Minimize overhead relentlessly, eliminate buracracy. (See #1)
6. Avoid expensive outside PR and other overhead (See #1 and #5)
7. Keep the vulture capitalists at bay. (See #1, #3, #5, and #6)
8. Start small and assemble team sharing common basic vision. (See #1, #3, #5, #7)
9. Profit.
It all makes sense, at least at a small scale. Overhead, indecision, and excessive levels of non-productive activity hurt productivity. Without productivity, you end up without a product, or end up with a poor one. With too much overhead, you need higher revenues just to break even.
Some organization and rules are necessary, but keep them minimal and focused on the end result. Push decisions as close to the actual work as possible to avoid paralysis, but keep a feedback loop in place to correct bad decisions.
Really, it all boils down to two words: "Work Efficiently".
Sigh. The guy is about 30 years old. His company has 10 people after having existed through one of the biggest economic booms of all time, and they make software and sell it.
I ask you: how could you NOT run a company like that in the way he is describing? Nobody would attempt to run a whelk stall like IBM, so how is this news?
Be that as it may, he says they are about to become 12 people. Let's hope they're all as good at doing their jobs as they think they are, because pretty soon they will know the answer. Personally, I would not want to be Jason Fried, and I certainly wouldn't want his name.
"And the meaning of words; when they cease to function; when will it start worrying you?"
37signals is a 10 man shop. Why is this guy considered an organizational guru given that he runs such a tiny organization? Your average World of Warcraft raid beats the organizational challenges he is facing.