Interview with David Heinemeier Hansson (creator of Ruby on Rails, CTO of Basecamp, author of Rework) about his philosophy around software development and Agile methodology.

If only Rework was required reading...

I honestly think you could make an entire college course just based on the stuff that the Basecamp guys have put out there. I don't necessarily agree with their perspective 100%, but it's valuable to consider vastly different viewpoints.

Yes, this book plus Lean Startup by Eric Ries plus Rework - that's all any tech startup needs to read to become successful.

For work : Rework, from 37signals. Fresh, opinionated and funny.

For leisure : A Dance with Dragons, from Georges R.R. Martin "Game of Thrones" series (the HBO version is superb, but do not miss the books either).

I love making things easy, but I think the 37signals group may take things too far. Their book "Rework" feels like an entrepreneur picture book made for kids learning to read. I liked the ideas presented in the book, but I really wish it could have been just a little more detailed.

Also know by myself as The Bible. Its new version, Rework, has been by the bed since it was released. Really inspiring book even if you don't agree with everything, it shows you a different view of lots of interesting topics in an easy to read way. Highly recommended.

Terry Pratchet 'The last continent', but it is 22-nd book of a serie 'flat world'. You should start from the begining. It's a really funny fantasy, and easy to read.

Another variant is 'Rework', authored 'DHH' for example - it is easy to read and usefully! Have a great vocation :)

This. Business books like Rework are about sharing ideas from the authors. People who read it want to share it with other people they know, too, which is why a paper version is great - it's continuously share-able.

I think 37Signals is the wrong company to use a comparison of headcount as some great thing. If you read Rework for example, 'they' prefer a small headcount and purposefully keep it so.

Read Rework of Jason Fried and Heinemeir Hansson. This Will mots probably change your perspective on this situation. Getting real of 37signals too. One of the unexpected advise is to underdo your competitors. Another one is to start a business not a stratus. Etc.

Read Rework of Jason Fried and Heinemeir Hansson. This Will mots probably change your perspective on this situation. Getting real of 37signals too. One of the unexpected advise is to underdo your competitors. Another one is to art a business not a stratus. Etc.

I recommend you spend the majority of your new found free time away from a desk. Then you'll gain perspective as a newly minted manager regarding the human element of software development.

That being said, Rework by J.F./DHH is fantastic.

This is the similar kind of advice that those behind 37 Signals give in their book Rework http://amzn.to/hkrGuU

I have heard a lot of great things about Rework but haven't read it yet. I'll definitely look into it, thanks.

For everyone interested there's an excellent book on running a bussines called Rework with exact same phrase "you're not a hero if you work long hours".

You should definitely check out Rework by 37signals. Although not in-depth, it definitely makes you think about the value of some of the more traditional notions.

Not tech related, but I loved Devil in the White City by Larson and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Pirsig.

Also, I reread Rework about 3 times this year. Always a good and quick read.

Agreed. Rework is a great book. Fried's new book "Remote" is out, by the way.

Rework and Art/Fear were the best books I read this year.

Yes, there are. The Basecamp founders wrote books about it, Rework and Remote. The reason you don't hear more about them is that heroic work is more glamorous to discuss. It is worth following https://twitter.com/dhh

Radical Candor by Kim Scott was the first book I was asked to read when I was promoted as manager. After that I went on to read High Output Management. Currently I am reading Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson.

I think both Rework and Remote are quick and easy reads that espouse a philosophy toward work that is anti-political, individual contributor focused, and no-BS. That's all I really need for a new hire to feel, so it works for me!

Rework by Jason Fried. Totally made me rethink modern management.

I read Rework recently and I am planning to write a review about it.

What would you consider a good rework review?

On my own list of usual recommendations, in no particular order.

- Linchpin

- Rework

- Evil Plans

- Four Hour Work Week

- Steve's Mind

Man, I'm moving now, and my books are all packed already. These are the ones that I've read and recommend.

The most recent book I read was Rework, by Json Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson. I think hackers might be most interested in it.

A few months back I also read 12 Rules for Life, and I really enjoyed it, even if I didn't feel like all the rules applied to me yet.

Not a good book review in it's current form. I'd recommend going into more detail, make it longer, and making it less of a self-promotion thing for your project -- for that is how it appears now. I would like to see a good review of Rework though, before buying it.

It's not from this year, but I have to say it: I read Rework quite a few months back and it honestly changed my life. Other than that, The Thank You Economy is a good one as well.

The obvious ones:
The Lean Startup - Eric Ries,
Rework - Jason Fried & DHH,
Getting Real - Jason Fried

If you're building SaaS, I recommend the following for largely non-technical content:

1. SaaStr.com (blog)
2. Behind the Cloud (book)
3. Rework (book)

I'd recommend being a bit more specific about the things you're after. But here's two of my favourites (one technical, one business):

"Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software", by Charles Petzold

"Rework", by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Ah, thanks, so I don't need to read Getting Real if I've already read Rework (I've skimmed Getting Real and it seems to be mostly the same thing).

- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

- Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight

- Rework by Jason Fried

- Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam

- Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

- The Martian by Andy Weir

- Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman

What a lot of 37Signals-fanatical-defence and unnecessary MBA bashing.

I'm a huge fan of the business 37Signals has built however Scott Olsen hit it on the head with his critique of their advice.

37Signals do indeed suffer from a "Pernicious Lack of Perspective" and from "Strident Insistence". If you read Rework (which frankly will only take you an hour), it is a series of chapters that could each be retitled "And another thing I really like about what we do at 37Signals".

Their advice doesn't work in all cases and they seldom if ever draw examples of other companies where it does. This doesn't take from what they have achieved but it does mean they're often far too far out of their boat when shouting advice at others.

Kudos to Scott for not only making this point but also being a very good writer.

1) Superintelligence. This is a really great read about the implications of AI, or general intelligence. It's really intriguing and brings up so many scenarios I've never thought about. Anyone interested in AI should definitely read this.

Similarly, On Intelligence is an absolutely brilliant book on what 'intelligence' is, how it works, and how to define it.

2) Hooked. Although it's very formulaic, Hooked provides a lot of good ideas and approaches on building a product.

3) REWORK. If you're a fan of 37 Signals and/or DHH, this is a succinct and enjoyable read about their principles on building and running a business.

Currently I'm reading SmartCuts and The Everything Store - both of which are great so far.

Most of your problems sound like they stemmed from VC. Similar story. It's a good, and hard, lesson. Two things one should not touch when it comes to building healthy companies in 2020: crypto and equity sales to VC. They're going to become fossils soon anyhow [1].

Read Rework by Basecamp. Read The Beginning of Infinity by Deutch. Read the Art of Doing Science and Engineering by Hamming. Watch some Bret Victor talks. Ignore the negative memes about tech. They're all wrong, the rules get re-written every 10 years, and that is going to decrease in duration, not increase. You might be the person needed to re-write them.

Release your code. Teach. Share.

If you can, bootstrap. Give more than you take. Don't hire or work with assholes. Grow slowly. Don't over-lever yourself. Make something people not just want, but love. Know thyself. Don't outsource your thinking, build the thing only you can build.

If you are not working on the most important problem in your field, why not?

Most importantly, know that the future is bright and that our best days are not only ahead of us, but always will be.

[1] https://alexdanco.com/2020/02/07/debt-is-coming/

Not sure if you read Rework or subscribe to 37signals' philosophy, but according to them, you never, never want to hire someone under duress. Hiring poorly is far, far worse than not hiring at all (according to their philosophy) so there should never be a case where you need to hire someone so quickly, you have to toss out resumes based on where they went to school.

I agree with what most other people have said here about doing it in your spare time and then going in full time when you know what you're doing. Give full time effort when the business requires your full time effort, there's no point in doing it full time when you have no users and no application to support.

Books I recommend: Rework, Lucky or Smart, The Art of the Start

Languages: HTML, CSS, and Javascript are a must (jQuery is a great JS library to use). I recommend Python and Django for the server side, though what ever language you choose you should use an MVC framework (Django, Rails, CakePHP).

My goal for this year was to read 10 books. Not a huge challenge but I'm happy I managed to complete it. I'm currently at my 16th book - so I might say that's pretty good.

Here's my 2016 reading list:

#1. Zero to One - Peter Thiel - 3.5*

#2. The Alchemis - Paulo Coelho - 3.5*

#3. Founders at Work - Jessica Livingston - 3*

#4. Traction - Gabriel Weinberg - 4.5*

#5. How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie -4*

#6. Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations... - Frederic Laloux, Ken Wilber - 4*

#7. Daily Rituals: How Artists Work - Mason Currey - 3*

#8. Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert T. Kiyosak - 3*

#9. The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs... - Eric Ries - 4.5*

#10. Meaningful: The Story of Ideas That Fly - Bernadette Jiwa - 3*

#11. Elon Musk: Inventing the Future - Ashlee Vance - 4*

#12. Rework - Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson - 4.5*

#13. Anything You Want - Derek Sivers - 4.5*

#14. South of the Border, West of the Sun - Haruki Murakami - 3.5*

#15. As A Man Thinketh / The Path Of Prosperity - James Allen - 4*

Currently I'm reading If This Is a Man / The Truce by Primo Levi - and so far it seems to be one of the top 3 books I've read this year - definitely a 4+* book.

Here's some that I have found useful:

Hack Your Education by Dale Stephens - http://goo.gl/O27Z8

Lean Startup - http://goo.gl/YVGuU

Startup Communities by Brad Feld - http://goo.gl/CaGTA

Rework by Jason Fried and DHH - http://goo.gl/IzGeB

The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman - http://goo.gl/Ucf3u

> It's also possible that purely language/framework books

That has been my experience. The best book club discussions (we do probably 10 different groups a year for 5+ years at this point) have been for books like The Pragmatic Programmer, Rework, Lean Startup, etc -- ones that focus more on a methodology or have room for discussion about trade-offs. Framework/language specific books tend towards the reference material side of things and don't have much room for discussion. One exception is the Seven Languages in Seven Weeks book -- we would work the exercises on our own and then meet together to discuss and share our solutions.

Not saying it is good or bad but the reasoning behind 37's style of writing became evident after I read this. It is from a chapter of their book Rework entitled "Pick a Fight":

"Having an enemy gives you a great story to tell customers,
too. Taking a stand always stands out. People get
stoked by conflict. They take sides. Passions are ignited.
And that’s a good way to get people to take notice."

I'm not asking him questions about how he manages, I'm asking him what his philosophy is. Very different. 37signals has often been seen as being on the anti-large company bandwagon, and obviously Jason and DHH co-wrote a book together called Rework in which they share all of their wisdom, including things like "You don’t need to staff up."

Jason responded that his philosophy is "balance." That's all well and good, but is that consistent with his involvement in Groupon? That's how this originally came up.

Certainly he has been very gracious to respond at all, and I think he's convinced me (and hopefully others) that there is no necessary inconsistency in preferring balance for one's own company and rapid growth for another -- or simply acknowledging that even if one doesn't gel with another philosophy on rapid growth that one can still provide valuable advice on design, etc.

Is that consistent with his philosophy as stated in Rework? I'm still not sure...

I have found these books to be very influential in my thinking on web startups and building things in general:

1) Hackers & Painters - PG

2) Smart & Get Things Done - Joel Spolsky

3) Rework - Jason Fried

4) Getting Real - Jason Fried

5) Founders at Work - Jessica Livingston

6) Joel on Software - Joel Spolsky

These are by far some of my favorites.

- Read PG's essay on coming up with startup ideas (http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html) and books on startups (Start Small Stay Small, Lean Startup, Rework, Zero to One, Abundance).

- Read Edward DeBono's "Serious Creativity" - the most brilliant book about generating ideas I've ever encountered. Not about startups or apps in particular, but very interesting.

-There are startup ideas threads on HN:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9836508

and https://www.reddit.com/r/SomebodyMakeThis/

- If you're good at android development - please, PLEASE build a good text editor. It is the most important app for me, the first thing I look for in any new device, and all android text editors suck SO MUCH. I would easily spend $10-$30 if you would build something like Editorial, that would be convenient to use on android smartphone.

-----

- Think if there's something in your life that's missing, some tool that you would like to use, and build that.

- If that fails - think about the perfect niche, about people you like and respect, who use technology and/or could benefit from it; understand them deeply, identify their goals, problems, challenges; and build something for them.

- If that fails - look for a different not tech-related hobby. Like music or writing or woodworking or something like that. Whatever makes you the most curious. That will help you with burnout, and will give you a great niche to work in. Then identify the problems you're facing, and solve them with technology.

- If that fails - talk to other people and ask if there's anything they might need, if there's any problems they have, etc.

- Also - check out new mobile OS'es, like Ubuntu Touch, Firefox OS, etc. These are new, emerging ecosystems, where there's plenty of apps to build. You can simply look at the most successful iOS/Android apps, and copy them to these platforms.

Some more info: The site is made in Jekyll and the quotes are loaded in the page using Javascript to get the random quote. I like to read and write down quotes, so a lot of quotes came from that source, the other good source is goodreads.

It's a manual process but I make sure that the quote is really good. In the case of stoicism I have a personal collection of maxims from different sources like Meditations (Marcus Aurelius), Letters from a stoic(Seneca) , Enchiridion(Epictetus - my favourite author).

If you go to arandomquote.com/stoic you will get only stoicism quotes, or you can go to arandomquote.com/business to get just business quotes.

Today I will add around 100 quotes from 25 books, like Rework, Deep Work, E-myth, Show your work, Art of War, Meditations, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, Man's Search for Meaning , etc

> a publication called Management Today
(which brags about being home to “one of the most senior
readerships of any business title”) disapproves?
That sounds about right.

For the record, I loved that point from Matt, and I like 37S' style - it suits you guys well. Most sensible people understand that "Meetings are toxic" doesn't mean "Never ever communicate" or anything silly - if anything, I'd say don't tone it down. People who like 37S like it because you turn the volume up and say it like it is and are not afraid of being casually outrageous at times. So please don't go excessively mainstream-friendly! Cheers and thanks for all the good work and free value you guys have distributed into the world, I'll be picking up a copy of Rework once I thin my reading list out a little.

I suggest the following books:

- The Lean Startup [http://amzn.to/X3SYp0]

- Rework [http://amzn.to/14DHIXG]

- Art of the Start [http://amzn.to/Vt4aMj]

Haha I didn't read Rework yet but I read Getting Things Done which is by Jason Fried & DHH as well, amazing book.

[sometimes, try to solve problems people don't even know exist yet.]

This is an amazing and interesting advice, thanks for pointing it out!

[No, not really. I've been working at night on projects for about 9 months and I'm just ...ready.]

This is where I'm heading, it's been 6 crazy months working at night, with the software engineer job I currently have on the day. But the time is coming soon, I feel more and more ready everyday, I have faith in me and my peers are pushing me to it as well, timing seems excellent I really can't wait! Focusing on my day job is becoming really, really hard hehe.

Thanks a lot, this is very helpful and I'll sure email you soon! Thanks again!

Controversial opinion incoming, but I've found their writings less valuable over time and see them more as opinions with an elitist tone. This is coming from someone who owns a copy of Rework and might just go over it again for it's unique quality of life advice.

Lately I've really noticed that you don't just get advice anymore, you also get a little bit of commentary on how the rest of the tech industry is dumb or insane or both because those fools are doing it the old way and we're doing it our own progressive and enlightened way that we figured out on our own after we sat down, put on our critical thinking caps, and tried something different, and lo and behold it worked.

This latest exercise stands out as particularly offensive because there really isn't any advice or wisdom worth sharing. They're just telling us that Basecamp had the best year ever and they don't feel like improving on it so they're not hiring at the moment. Correction, it's actually a hiring freeze. Same thing, except the phrase "hiring freeze" is normally used in the context of something bad. They're going to use it in a different context to, you know, get more claps on Medium. On top of all this they felt the need to do a little compare and contrast between what they're doing vs what the rest of those unenlightened fools in the tech industry are doing, i.e. reinvest profits into new ways to grow.

Whatever. There are plenty of businesses that are happy with where they're at and settle-in, Basecamp is different because they're a tech company and they feel the need to blog about it. As for those companies that are growing, well, I think it's perfectly fine to keep growing, just don't turn your company into the equivalent of foie gras.

It's just disappointing. I looked up to them, still kinda do, but this is just marketing spin designed to make something boring and innocuous look radical.

1. Learn to be criticised and to gain as much knowledge from that, as possible.

2. Learn to fail and feel good with that. And as above, to gain as much knowledge from that, as possible.

3. Learn to be confident enough to defend your solution.

4. Read as many non stricly technical books related to programming as possible. Ie. "The Pragmatic Programmer", "Rework", "Clean code", etc.

5. Don't take your job too serious. If you worry about your code after hours, stop! And if you can't, change your employer.

6. Everyone makes mistakes. Just try to not repeat them.

We use Basecamp, Zoom, Dropbox, Proton-mail, Miro (Mind-mapping) extensively.

Remote work requires a change in mindset...more than tools/tips.

My favorite books...

Remote: Office Not Required https://www.amazon.com/Remote-Office-Required-Jason-Fried/dp...

Rework By Jason Fried & DHH https://www.amazon.com/Rework-Jason-Fried/dp/0307463745?_enc...

It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work https://www.amazon.com/Doesnt-Have-Be-Crazy-Work/dp/00628747...

Here's what works for me:

1/

  - Intense workouts early in the day
  - A lot of water
  - Sunlight

2/

  - Airplane mode
  - Batching email, IM, SMS, ..
  - Automate payments
  - It's ok to be late with administration sometimes

Books that really helped me:

  - The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss [1]
  - Getting Things Done by David Allen [2]
  - Rework by Jason Fried [3]

[1] http://amzn.com/0307465357
[2] http://amzn.com/0142000280
[3] http://amzn.com/0307463745

edit: added Rework

The other answers aren't wrong, but I think listening to 37Signals Partner DHH from Startup School would speak best: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY

Almost more than their products, they're known for their very vocal broadcasting against the standard startup focus of investments, valuations, exits, etc...

Their books "Getting Real" and "Rework" represent their bootstrapping, sustainable-business values - they're not timid in speaking out against the nonsense of the modern startup conventional wisdom.

Personally, I think it's a very refreshing and empowering voice for entrepreneurs. It's not without controversy though, so dig in to their content for yourself to make your own judgement. (FWIW - "Getting Real" is a free PDF out there somewhere. I recommend it, though others may or may not.)

One option no one mentioned: No book. Do first, read later. Experience trumps reading every time. At least I think that many people just started to work on something instead of reading first.

My favorites, which I read only after I launched a product:

Rework. About improving a product.

"This is Marketing" from Seth Godin. To get the right mindset about who the audience is.

I'll give David credit where it's due - Rework is an excellent book, ROR has a great fanbase, and 37Signals products are generally very well executed.

However I find myself paying little attention to anything he says because it's all just so negative. I unfollowed him on Twitter because I just found every single one of his tweets to be criticising someone else or someone else's business. There's only so much negativity you can take from one person. </2¢>

They have a couple, but this chapter is in Rework - https://basecamp.com/books/rework

I had asked a question[0] regarding books a few months ago which ended up in the following list[1].
From those so far I have read the following:

- Elon Musk: Inventing the Future - Ashlee Vance
Totally worth to get insight into the Elon. Kinda changes the superhero/good guy image everyone has but you end up with more respect for him whatsoever.

- Thinking fast and slow - Daniel Kahneman
Awesome book presenting modern psychology. You'll get insight into how humans work.

- Rework - Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson
Nice, albeit small book regarding how the creators of rails manage their company. So very nice insight.

- The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers - Ben Horowitz
I started reading this but it was too business centric for me so I stopped, however if you're a business owner it might be worth it.

- Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel - Rolf Potts
This is a nice/into book if you're interested into digital nomading, long term travel in general.

- The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
This in my opinion is a superb book if you are interested in statistics/philosophy. He presents the chaotic structure of our world and why extreme events are more common than we think.Definitely suggested.

- The art of Learning - Josh Waitzkin
This is a book that presents the Author's (Chess and Tai Chi Chuan World champion) way of learning. Has some pretty useful insight.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12415621
[1]: https://github.com/kostistsaprailis/non-tech-books-for-devel...

I just finished reading ReWork, Jason Fried's latest book. The irony of this submission is that the book describes Christian to a tee: the customer who always wants more; the customer who has outgrown the product; the customer who compares competitors but would rather complain than move.

I have to admire the way 37signals has grown over the last few years. Sure, they clearly don't integrate every feature. The user interface certainly works but has no iGloss about it at all. Pricing is steep and they hide the lower-priced plans. But it works: people still use the service.

If you're a coffee shop you concentrate on your coffee. If you're an electrician, you concentrate on the quality of your work. Adding extras like "nice cable ties" are irrelevant. 37signals are concentrating on their core functionality. When the day comes that the majority of their users require X feature and that feature becomes a norm in Project Management, Contact Management, Collaboration, etc then I'm almost sure they will react: why wouldn't they?

its called Workaholism. the workaholic sabotages to make work because his ultimate fear is not having enough work. google "Chained to the Desk" book on amazon and read it on kindle. also google my post "Hero - Martyr Cycle" or "Kent Beck: Ease At Work (Part 1 of 7)". also read "4 Hour Work Week" by Tim Ferris to learn how to really get shit done and go play. also "Rework" and "Getting Real" by 37Signals.

Figure out how much you really have after taxes, fees, other reductions, etc. Keep it in a safe bank account (i.e. the bank will not become bankrupt and your money will disappear; no matter where you keep it, make sure it doesn't vanish) Then sit down and figure out what you want to do. Others have already provided a comprehensive guide to immediate tasks. I think it will help to define a purpose for this money. Your modest living should help greatly; just make sure you don't take purely financial risk with the money (like becoming an investor disconnected absolutely with what he's investing in).

Some personal suggestions of mine include starting another company that you have passion to start and fund. It seems that you won't waste money, but it goes without saying to start as though you has no money at all. If you start anything whether it's a non-profit or company, start immediately with what you need. Ask if you can start with the least you have. Read REWORK by 37signals. (this book will provide invaluable experience) Read Getting Things Done by David Allen. Not only will it help to organize yourself, but refocus yourself on a 50,000 feet level and realize what you want to do with your life. The book can prompt internal self-actualization, but you have to be the one to figure it out. (though their workflow coaching can help setup your system for the first time, you can do it yourself too) Some of this advice, you probably know already, but this can be a refresher.

Ask yourself questions! Feel that you want to help other in your community? Do that. See an incredible opportunity on the horizon? Do that. Work with what you have a passion for.

I hope others on the internet and I have been able to provide sound ideas for what to do. Whatever the case, you already came this far. I wish you the best of luck in what you plan to pursue, and hopefully you'll be able to benefit our world and yourself. Make sure that you make the decision you know are the best for you. Personally, please use the money constructively...help someone with it if you don't know what else to do after making sure you have enough for the rest of your life.

Thank you for sharing your success. I hope I can learn one or thing from your sharing.

Currently, I'm selling a consumer productivity app (Android only) in Google Play store.

The characteristics of this category are large consumer demand, and low barrier to entry. Because of this, there are a lot of players in this category.

My pricing model is pretty simple - $20 one time payment to unlock everything. I know I can earn significant more by having subscription / in-app advertising. Since I can make a living with current income, I will leave it that way. I want to sacrifice short-term good profit, in exchange for long term growth.

Initially, I get the first 10k users, by promoting the app, via forum self-post. Later, we notice this is not something scale-able. As, you can only get that much of users from forums.

Right now, I have around 500k users. That mostly attributes to Google Play store organic/search traffic. Because of this, I spend a lot of time in optimizing Google Play store page listing - provide proper localization on product description, performing A/B testing on different product screenshots.

However, that is pretty much risky. What if Google stops sending traffic to my Google Play store page?

I spend some advertising dollar each day in Google Ads, with the hope able to keep our app ranking afloat.

Do you have any suggestion, how I can have a better marketing strategy?

From your post, I will start by purchasing

- "Rework" by Basecamp

- "This is Marketing" from Seth Godin

I also like your suggestion "Write articles that teach people something". Do you have suggestion which publishing platform I should use? Since I don't have a good writing skill, should I hire a freelancer to help me do so? How can I get an idea what to write about?

Thank you, and BIG congratulation on your achievement.

- "Rationality: From AI to Zombies" - probably the most influential book I've read in my life, profoundly changed the way I think. It's a collection of LessWrong essays on science and rationality.

- "On Intelligence" and "I am a Strange Loop" - how mind works.

- "Rework", "Zero to One", "Start Small, Stay Small" - insightful startup advice.

- Fun autobiographies: Ghost in the Wires (Kevin Mitnick), iWoz (Steve Wozniak), Catch me if you can (Frank Abagnale), Just for Fun (Linus Torvalds), Elon Musk, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

- How companies work: Creativity Inc (Pixar), In the Plex (Google)

- On writing: Art of fiction/nonfiction by Ayn Rand, Story by Robert McKee, Save the Cat, Step by Step to Standup Comedy.

- Other: The Selfish Gene, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Serious Creativity, Hackers & Painters, Hacking Growth, Angel (on angel investing, by Jason Calacanis).

Also collections of essays by Paul Graham [1] and Scott Alexander [2]:

[1] https://www.dropbox.com/s/2no0sqybnxurpcd/Paul%20Graham%20-%...

[2] https://www.dropbox.com/s/i43lqpdyd4qa255/The%20Library%20of...

I'm a big fan of vacation policies that lean this way, and have been working at a shop that has a "no vacation policy, policy" for almost four years. That said, I'd echo what I've heard a number of people [1] say about this strategy... that your new challenge is making sure that people take enough time off and don't feel guilty about it. This is the hidden upside to commoditizing PTO, no one sweats using it. It's sort of perceived as a liquidized resource. In an environment without any rules or even vocabulary around time off, it can be a little bit discomforting to take a two week trip or go through with long-weekend plans in a crunch time, etc.

That said, I vastly prefer it to the alternative.. Just want to encourage teams that go down this road to not use these vacation policies as an accidental excuse not to pay attention to and discuss time off and whether it's working out for everyone as well as you'd hope or expect!

[1] My first exposure to this sentiment: http://www.amazon.com/Up-Organization-Corporation-Stifling-S...

[Edit - Just feel the need to plug harder - Seriously, go read Townsend's book. Published in 1970 and it (unfortunately) still reads incredibly forward thinking. It's basically Rework , written 35 years ago (with only respect to JF and DHH, I really enjoyed Rework as well).]

I think that first, you should always consider an escape route, no matter what you are doing.

First of all, I do not believe a lot in the "startup game", so my advice is to read some books before doing something: Rework is a good start.

It forge you an opinion on how to run a tech company, productivity stuff, scaling, ...

Next, I suppose that you are a high school student, so you're going to have your bachelor this year.

I have to say: Do not favor your company / projects more than your studies. These are your escape route, and an escape route should be fail-proof as much as you can.

Get as much degree as you can, while you can try to make your side-projects and ideas better, to adjust them, to test them.

The whole idea is to invest the minimal time in your idea while building your escape route.

Now, why what I say makes sense?
I guess that you have certainly a tremendous potential, you must be a self-taught developer who started since 10 ~ 12 years old to play with a computer.

So, in fact, I went through that too, and I wanted to launch my startup ASAP, to throw everything. But some people around me helped me a lot to understand that if it fails, you're completely fucked. And my guess is that for a 17y founder it is a lot worse than a 27y founder. Keep doing what you love, it is hard to wait, I definitely feel the urge to go ahead and do something that you hope will matter.
But, just wait, and keep refining, it will definitely give birth to a better product, better ideas and others things.

I just wanted to share my view, as I hope to understand what you see.

If you want to talk more about my experience, drop me a line at masterancpp at gmail dot com

I would love to learn more about your experience, what you want to do, what you have done, and where you want to go with all of that.

- "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie

- "The art of thinking clearly" by Ralf Dobelli

- "Sources of power" by Gary Klein

- "The 8 pillars of motivation" by Farnoosh Brock

- "ReWork" by Jason Fried and David Hansson

- "Don't make me think" by Steve Krug

- "The art of explanation" by Lee LeFever

- "Getting real" by 37Signals

- "The secret" by Rhonda Byrne

Well, I was searching the net for free rails books, and I came across this blog post, I am also currently reading a book called Rework (by Jason Fried and DHH from 37signals)

And this post strikes me as almost a complete opposite of what Rework preaches (for the lack of a better term), noting that I only read the first 100 pages (which are more like 30 pages considering the amount of whitespace and pictures in this book)

I am really falling in love with the ideas Rework teaches (is this a better term), and I believe that they fit more with my experience in life, which is something I didn't expect, considering I find DHH obnoxious. But I have to admit Rework is a great book

Now pointing back to the blog post in the link I shared, it's written by Obie Fernandez, which is also someone that I really don't like, I read a while ago another blog post by him, about how you should be a hustler and stuff to make it in life, and I guess he didn't change. Some people just like to do a little bit of all, and this I definitely admire, so I dislike Obie, but this doesn't mean he is a bad guy.

I guess the point here is, even thought Hashrocket and probably anything Obie touches, will be done using methods that are the exact opposites of how 37signals get work done. Both are successful, and apparently happy ... Perl was right all along TIMTOWTDI

ok, I will respectfully disagree with most of you here, as there is nothing "comical" about it.

This made me officially sick, although so far had high opinion of them. I didn't get the joke of "french" font, and "hard working americans." I feel...insulted, as this is a way how to promote stupidity and national hatred. The guy wrote a book, and just because it is one position higher, he is a subject of an attack like this. Did they even read his book? No, it was easier to search the internet of a guy who didn't like it and quote it.

Maybe tomorrow it is >you< there, with your book, or your product. Or me?

Wasn't the content that mattered? I've seen excerpts from Rework and feel this is a toilet book. Inarticulate and arrogant, I know it all style, but I don't go making a video comparing their book with e.g. Re-Imagine by Tom Peters.

Tom has an attitude, but not an insulting one, but of a creative energy, an innovative arrogance that he wishes to spread.

Again, it could be just me. I would never smack Americans with "All European/Asian/African" labels. Nationality, religion and all other kinds of divide are elements of mediocrity. Real hackers should know that.

Founders at work by Jessica Livingston,
Rework by Jason Fried and DHH,
The Startup Owners Manual by Steve Blank...

Doing proper market survey with reality check and knowing your customer is also a job. Many times non-technical people don't understand this. They think that THEY ARE CONTRIBUTING BY BRAINSTORMING AROUND NEW FEATURES. As someone has mentioned in other comment - "you are finding excuses not to sell...". You should ask him to read 'rework' by DHH and Json Fried

I started listening to audio books very recently, so some of these books might be old to you.

* Predictably Irrational - How Humans behave and why.

* 4 hour work week - About how to earn money to live not live to earn money

* Made to stick - How to convey ideas in a way others will remember

* Lean Startup - How to build products using continuous innovation

* Guerrilla Marketing - Basic Marketing principles in 30 days

* Rework - Myth Buster for Internet/Tech companies

* Outsider Edge - Condensed History and reasoning for success of self-made billionaires

* Linus Torvalds - Just for Fun - About Linus Torvalds

Ebooks ( haven't finished reading yet, but they are great so far )

* Getting thing Done - Management principle for knowledge workers by David Allen

* Agile Development - Building Rails apps using agile methodology

I can't believe I've finished 8 books in 2011, long live audio books.

Life changing books...

I read Decartes in high school during the teenage existential crises we all go through and it blew my mind. Opened me up to the power of thinking from first principles and a love of philosophy and questioning everything. Cogito, ergo sum!

"Atlas Shrugged" gets a lot of hate, but it's a phenomenally important book. It was one of those that completely consumed me during the read. I could not put it down – stayed up late, work up early, and rushed home from work to get back to it.

"Rework", "Getting Real", the other books by the old 37signals crew, and of course "The Lean Startup" really changed the way I thought about software development and business. I credit them for much of my startup/programming success.

Taleb's Incerto series changed how I thought about investing, risk, and life in general. "Fooled by Randomness" and "Antifragile" are especially good.

Allangrant, 

I do have to say, based on the evidence that DHH keeps unearthing, it does not seem like your company has put forth the immediate effort needed to represent that your company is taking to heart what is being said by DHH and others.  That unfortunately is effectively like a strike 2.  First for the action, and secondly for the inaction.  Yes the inaction is both in relation to PR and actual outcome of change.  

For the future viability of your company, you might consider immediately removing all content and styles even remotely considered to be "borrowed" (by any definition)...even if it means your websites are bland and almost blank.  That however only closes the door on any indiscretions.  Going through the challenges of repentance and acquiring forgiveness, is something only your company's heart can achieve.  Seeking guidance would also probably be a good idea to get you through this current PR issue.

On your twitter pic it shows that you wish to stop sopa.  In a recent case, GoDaddy had their own PR problem that cost them dearly.  Given that your company is a start up, even with $1.2M in funding, appropriately negative PR like this can cost the company it's life.

*PS: 37Signals has 2 good books to read.  I believe "Rework" even has some comments regarding when you screw up as a company.  However, since it is the authors themselves to which your company has afflicted....

I hope your company is able to make the right choices.

The idea that everyone has time to do 'X' if they only wanted it bad enough is complete BS.

For people that work two jobs, have a family to take care of, commute several hours, have a sick spouse and sleep there is no more time in the day. No matter how badly you want it.

Unless you or the author of Rework know of a magical formula to make the day longer than 24 hours or how to operate on little to no sleep.

I've been holding out to read Rework until I can get it on iPad. This was just the dose I needed to get me through.

I absolutely love the guys at 37signala. In particular, their writing style. I recently bought Rework and it was an incredibly easy to finish book, fairly short, but at the same time packed full of more information than books I've read that were twice as long on the subject.

I like the ideas put forth here. Sometimes we forget about these basic concepts like the fact that we deserve to be paid fairly for our work. How simple is that?! I know I lose sight of it all the time. I've been in business for a year (2 weeks is when my 1 year anniversary is) and I now charge ten times as much as I did the first month I started and I still have to raises prices a lot more. This isn't a good thing. It's bad because I obviously undersold myself because I lost sight of the fact that I'm giving something valuable to someone and I should be well paid for it. Instead I felt guilty for charging when I was enjoying my work.

Most of their writings on business is so simple but profound (to me at least). From what I've read, it all boils down to making sure you're being paid for your work, always see if there's a better way to do things, and your business should grow into itself instead of fitting into someone else's mold (e.g. Following business advice that doesn't apply to what you're trying to achieve just because everyone else is doing it and that's what you "should do". ).

I also love the fact that they're Chicago boys. I always root for the home team, haha. I have a friend who knows Jason Fried and I really hope I get an introduction one day.

Although you'll need to spend 100% of your time on your startup, at some point, you don't have to start that way. Just make sure that you do whatever you can to fully switch context when working at your job or on your startup. Trying to do both, switching back and forth during the day, will drive you crazy. So in short, yes it can be done.

BTW: if you haven't read it already, read "REWORK" by the guys from 37signals. They talk about this misconception.

Also, starting your startup this way is incredibly hard. But, if you are really serious, you'll find a way and all of the sudden you'll find yourself spending more time on your startup that at your job. Good luck.

First off I feel as though I dont know much about how a startup works yet. Im trying to learn so I could eventually launch something in the future.

Watching the first video "Holy shit , my idea sucks" around the 15:30 mark or if you look at the slides, its slide 11, the guy says that an idea "Must be NEW or BETTER".

How true is that? Why MUST it be (only) one of those two?

I was reading one of 37 signals books' "Rework" and they said their model was not to make something new or better, but to simplify. They admit there are better applications out there, jam packed with more features but they found that to be to cumbersom.

If someone from YCombinator watched these videos first before starting up their idea(s), would they be where they are right now? How informative would someone suggest these videos are that has some experience in the Startup field?

Read Paul Graham's essays, Start Small Stay Small, personal MBA, Lean Startup, Zero to One by Peter Thiel, 5 hour Workweek, Rework by 37signals. All of these are fantastic reads. In no particular order. Many of them available as audiobooks.

If you want to start a startup I would advise you to come up with an idea and start working on your product. Learn the necessary technology as you go. You really don't need to know so much on the "business" side of things when you start.

"How to Get Startup Ideas" by PG and Start Small Stay Small really cover 90% of what you need to know when you begin.

Sorry, can't recommend any videos, I guess How to Start a Startup are the most useful ones.

Agreed, Facebook is odd, no other way to say it. For developers, Facebook Connect is sort-of interesting but using Facebook is boring and I have never clicked on any FB advertisements (compare to, for example, GMail advertisements that I do hit and sometimes I buy stuff: profit for Google).

Off topic: I am half way through your new book "REWORK" and and I find it useful since it addresses so many of my own bad habits. Unfortunately, I need to constantly fight the temptation to explore new tech instead of getting things done.

Not sure how new you mean when you say new, but I'll throw a couple of ideas out:

First, have you read Steven Gary Blank's "The Four Steps to the Epiphany?" If not, put that at #1 on your list, IMO.

Outside of that, Patricia Seybold's "Outside Innovation" was interesting. "Rework" by the 37 Signals guys is worth a read. If you want something that's not strictly business, but could be important to entrepreneurs, or just anybody who is fascinated by understanding more about how the world works, then "The Black Swan" and/or "Fooled by Randomness" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb are very interesting.

In the last five years moved from development, to leading the development team to more of a product management role. Fully agree with that DanielBMarkham it's "the people part of things is where you'll screw up", so I'd focus on communication and team-building as much as processes.

I've found a few books really useful:

* The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6667514-the-checklist-ma...)

* Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6452796-drive)

* Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7696135-making-ideas-hap...)

* Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6828896-delivering-happi...)

* Rework (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6732019-rework)

These days I get the most value from articles and videos. Here is a list of my recommended articles on Medium, which might be useful - https://medium.com/@nickboyce/has-recommended. Some great stuff in the list recommended by ravivyas too.

Edit: Something else I have been experimenting with is buying executive summaries of major books, in order to familiarise myself with as many perspectives as possible.

So I just finished reading Rework. I like it very much - there is a lot of common sense here. And we all know the saying - common sense is not very common.

On hiring: I especially like the part about hiring. Where they suggest doing the job yourself first so you clearly understand what it is. We've hired a lot of people and took on a lot of weight/baggage - sometime to fix issues that were systemic. So instead of fixing the issue we through a body at it.

On Meetings: They say meetings are toxic. Of course not all meetings are toxic - but many are. I am going to try a no meetings day at work. People need time to get into a groove. Meetings interrupt that groove.

Ok - now that I've sung the praises here are a few reality checks. 37Signals essentially works for themselves. Of course they have customers, even raving fans of which I am one. But they do not have clients. This is a whole different type of environment, especially when you get into more complex industries like pharma marketing keeping things as simple is very difficult. We have to have policies, compliance officers, deep documentation, security audits etc. Look at basecamp for example - we can't use it. It does not comply with SOX, it does not have time sheets that roll up to functions - all requirements in our industry. Another example is simply prototyping in html as they suggest won't work. We are required to submit technical documentation.

Also - size makes a difference. As far as I know 37 is about 16 people. Simple is simple at that size. When your at 70 people simple is harder. You can do the job before you hire someone to the job for you. I can't be a compliance officer - I wouldn't know how.

All in all I love the book - and hope to run my start up with some of the same mentality. And I'm and avid user of their products. But they are not living in a prototypical situation. Of course they may be very much more profitable than some larger companies so no one can say they are wrong - just not the norm.

I usually read books when I'm trying to learn something new and complex, such as a new programming language. I have a few reasons for that:

- The information in books is complete. Tutorials on the web usually cover only a tiny fraction of everything there is to know about a specific technology. Tutorials often go deep into a specific part of the technology, or try to cover everything in a very shallow way. Books provide a thorough explanation of everything, nut just a tiny fraction.

- Books (if you make the right selection, I usually type "best [some technology] book" in google and read the suggestions on stackoverflow or other programming sites) are usually written by authoritative people in the industry. Very often by the author of the programming language that you're trying to learn. Not by some amateur who has some spare time and wants to write a blog post.

- It's much more pleasant to read long texts on paper than on a bright computer screen where you have to scroll all the time and cant place physical bookmarks.

As for your last question (what I read and can recommend):

Tech:

- Design patterns : elements of reusable object-oriented software

- Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

- Code Complete 2

- Clean Code

- Pro ASP.NET MVC (if you're into MS stuff like me)

- Scrum and XP from the trenches

Marketing/business:

- Business model generation

- Purple Cow

- Permission marketing

- Rework

(how to do these line breaks correct?)

I didn't like SICP. I can handle boring books, but this one is pretty extreme.

From a book called Rework [1]:

"When you want something bad enough, you make the time - regardless of your other obligations. The truth is most people just don't want it bad enough. Then they protect their ego with the excuse of time."

I think virtually everyone in the UK has the means to eat healthy if they really want to.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Rework-Jason-Fried/dp/0307463745

* Thinking Fast, Slow by Daniel Kahneman

* Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson

* Slack, by Tom DeMarco (also re-read Peopleware). Both of these books are fundamental to anyone developing software within an organization.

* Delivering Happiness, by Tony Hsieh. It's not fantastic but it's helpful if you are trying to build a business.

* Tribal Leadership - recommended by the above. Not great but interesting.

* Rework - short read, worth the time.

* Managing Humans by Rands - very entertaining, useful if you manage people.

Other stuff I read is not worth mentioning in a "best books" list.

We've invented the mobile un-friendly site! We are industry pioneers!

How are we missing the -

Paperback + Consultation for $250
Complete 45 page book (45 pages?)
Ships within 2 days
1 hour 1-on-1 consultation
Expert implementation advice

They sound like experts to me. 37signals book Rework only has 288 pages $11. Page count doesn't mean everything, but clearly 37sig is stuffed with fluff. All you need is 45 to change to the game up.

I'm a non-profit and small business owner, I'm sold!

I'm the CTO at Parse.ly, you can visit us at https://parse.ly.

We run a fully distributed team. We have commented on our culture around this in these two blog posts--

The How & Why of Parse.ly's Fully Distributed Team:

https://blog.parse.ly/post/3203/the-how-and-why-of-parse-lys...

Fully Remote, But Here For Each Other:

https://blog.parse.ly/post/4736/mission/

We actually recommend "Rework" and "Remote" as two reading materials for new hires when they join the company.

As for financing, Parse.ly is no longer a bootstrapped company, but we do take a "lean" approach to SaaS VC fundraising.

My co-founder wrote a bit about this in this post--

A Different Way — Thoughtful Financing, Or Why We Said "No" to a Lot of Money:

https://blog.parse.ly/post/6282/why-we-said-no-vc-money/

I've definitely seen overuse of React, microservices, and NoSQL databases before it makes sense or when it's actually a detriment to complexity.

This point from the article however, I agree is a bad example.

> Example 2: TDD is dead by DHH

The 37signals guys if anything are some of the realest in terms of low fidelity tools and sensible abstractions and building things simply. They've even written two books about their approach to business and web app development (Rework, Getting Reals). Maybe there is concentrated hype around Rails but in general their stuff is well informed and well thought out.

I echo prior advice about habits -- the standard stuff I've heard is after doing something for ~3 weeks, it becomes habit. I have had moderate success with streaks (both for exercise and coding). Esp. insofar as coding goes, I would say "just to a little bit every day". Find 10 minutes here to just open the editor and fix/improve/write one line & commit (or work on design or something, since writing software is def. not all coding). You'll be there before you know it. See: http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-se...

I would point you to two other reference materials. One, is Andy Hunt's (of the Pragmatic Programmers) book: "Pragmatic Thinking and Learning" which I cannot recommend enough. Second is 37Signals "Rework", which I also heartily reccomend.

One thing Pragmatic Thinking & Learning touches on is S.M.A.R.T. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

Also? I have A.D.H.D., too. I also struggle at times -- it's a bitch to admit you're both intelligent & disabled.
I don't have much practical advice on this topic, just be aware.

Finally, work on balance. Work on goals. And don't sweat the small stuff -- relax and work slowly. Change is hard.

Best of luck.

-N

P.S. Exercise helps everything (ditto sleep) -- cognition, bodily health, focus, etc. Even if you don't lose any weight (or gain slightly due to fat -> muscle) it's still worth it. Trust me.