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10th out of 30 books
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24 voters
Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Web Application
by
37 Signals
Book report
Getting Real is the business, design, programming, and marketing philosophies of 37signals — a developer of web-based software used by over 1 million people and businesses in 70 countries.
Why is the book relevant?
37signals used the unconventional Getting Real process to launch five successful web-based applications (Basecamp, Campfire, Backpack, Writeboard, Ta-d...more
Getting Real is the business, design, programming, and marketing philosophies of 37signals — a developer of web-based software used by over 1 million people and businesses in 70 countries.
Why is the book relevant?
37signals used the unconventional Getting Real process to launch five successful web-based applications (Basecamp, Campfire, Backpack, Writeboard, Ta-d...more
PDF, 171 pages
Published
2006
by Self
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37 Signals take on how to do business and build products (particularly web software products). Sanctimonious, but it works.
First of all, you can read this for yourself, online, for free. That spoke to me... Here's the link:
http://gettingreal.37signals.com/toc.php...
This book is written by the software development team that built Basecamp, Backpack, and Campfire. They are successful, opinionated, and have soom good ideas. Now their business is software development, which is different from instructional design, but it is on some ways analogous. Both involve creativity and technical expertise, teams, budgets and typica...more
http://gettingreal.37signals.com/toc.php...
This book is written by the software development team that built Basecamp, Backpack, and Campfire. They are successful, opinionated, and have soom good ideas. Now their business is software development, which is different from instructional design, but it is on some ways analogous. Both involve creativity and technical expertise, teams, budgets and typica...more
Unlike their Re-work book, this book actually makes sense. It's kind of a set of 'best practices' on how to efficiently build a web application. I would even claim that many of the advice could be successfully applied outside the web application or even software domain. The book is organised in 'themes' like 'Organisation', 'Code', 'Process', 'Feature Selection' and offers practical, actionable 2 page tips in the form of elaborated aphorisms (did that sentence make it any clearer how this book i...more
37Signals' Getting Real, which you can read online by the way, is their trial to summarize how one can create software quickly by dealing with the actual problems he is trying to solve and staying agile and less complex. Or as they put it here.
Getting real is less. Less mass, less software, less features, less paperwork, less of everything that's not essential (and most of what you think is essential actually isn't).
I advise you to read it, however let me put here the most import point I liked t...more
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Asumo que será parcial mi crítica.
Los autores, o mejor dicho, el ethos, the way of thinking, concuerda casi en un 100 por ciento con su manera de encarar los proyectos (humanos y de los otros).
El libro no necesita de vastas cantidades de páginas.
En poco menos de ciento veinte páginas, destila puntos de vista, en muchos casos, contra la Academia (fuck off Harvard Bussiness Review!!), contra el stablishment.
No es poco.
Una poca de sentido común, alta dosis de sensatez, muchos NO por doquier (el eje...more
Los autores, o mejor dicho, el ethos, the way of thinking, concuerda casi en un 100 por ciento con su manera de encarar los proyectos (humanos y de los otros).
El libro no necesita de vastas cantidades de páginas.
En poco menos de ciento veinte páginas, destila puntos de vista, en muchos casos, contra la Academia (fuck off Harvard Bussiness Review!!), contra el stablishment.
No es poco.
Una poca de sentido común, alta dosis de sensatez, muchos NO por doquier (el eje...more
Easy to read , Easy to understand - to the point !
Oct 04, 2009
Shawn
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
All web developers
Recommended to Shawn by:
Justin James
An "agile" project management methodology and a general guide for start ups from the original developers of Ruby on Rails. Short and very well written in plain language. Some of it breaks sharply with conventional project management, but for many projects (especially web projects) ... I think there is a lot of wisdom in this guide.
A few highlights:
- "Functional specs force you to make the most important decisions when you have the least information" ... so keep specs extremely simple, develop in...more
A few highlights:
- "Functional specs force you to make the most important decisions when you have the least information" ... so keep specs extremely simple, develop in...more
Great read: easy, intelligent and to the point. The authors confidently present their own ideas about building and promoting web-based applications, using examples from their own company and products. They practice what they preach and have created entire line of products by following their own advice. The approach to just getting things done and minimizing (and even removing) formal and time-consuming processes, meetings and specifications is refreshing
This book flies in the face of almost every pre-conceived notion of business we have today. Although it is written for software companies, the advice can easily transfer to most any business. From hiring to productivity to marketing, 37signals gives you a truly fresh perspective on doing business in the new age of startups. If you enjoyed this book, I would also highly recommend reading 'The Method Method' by Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan.
Great ideas - although I'm not a web designer - many of the ideas apply to what I do - corporate training. Basically - do more, think about doing more a lot less. I 100% agree - more and more I feel like I'm documenting what I'm going to do, meeting about what I'm going to do, and telling managers what I'm going to do than I get time to do it! :) This book is ammo to stop doing that!
Awesome quick reference for anyone who is going to create a webapp. Good design guidelines from some guys who really seem to understand what it means to create a product and build a relationship between company, product, and user base in a very efficient way. Would be nice if they included some more insight on UI (something I seek to learn more) but for the time it took to read, this is 100% worth it!
Dec 02, 2012
Nolan Haynes
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone looking to start a business around a web application or improve their life in some way
Much of what the book goes over could be looked as common sense. Such common sense needs to be repeated in order to keep it fresh in our minds. As for the rest of the book however, it opened my eyes to what could be possible when bootstrapping your own company and building a company around developing software for the web or a desktop or mobile operating system.
Wow. Will get you motivated to create your own business creating web apps now. Lean startup advice. If you're in the tech software/web industry, got to check this out. Just read a chapter or two, you'll be hooked. Very fast and to the point. Great for ADD readers. Warning: if you work for a large software company today, you may not be for much longer
Loved it. I was a cheapskate and read the free online version with the help of the browser on my Kindle. I'll purchasing ReWork (their main book) to read very soon.
I love the ideas presented. The keep it simple and lean thinking approach is something close to my heart, so this was more fuel for the fire.
I think this can be used as a great blueprint for those building apps online.
I love the ideas presented. The keep it simple and lean thinking approach is something close to my heart, so this was more fuel for the fire.
I think this can be used as a great blueprint for those building apps online.
Given you never read Rework or the $100 startup and you're not familiar to scrum or eXtreme Programming practices, only then this book will inspire you and open your eyes. Otherwise it's a nice rehash but there's nothing new under the sun. Scratch your own itch, meetings are toxic, release early and often, watch out for code complexity, ... - some things are literally found again in "Rework", but I did read Rework first so I might lower that rating too ;-)
It's quite a quick read and that's a go...more
It's quite a quick read and that's a go...more
This book, like 37signals other book "Getting Real", is a must read for software development firms and business folk alike. The writing style keeps you reading and the concepts and lessons they are sharing, while controversial, ring true. After reading both these books I will be applying many of the techniques described within.
Quick read and a great book for anyone who has any interest in running their own business (especially if its tech based). Shows a lot of contrast to the trends in the tech sector right now but very few points they make are hard to agree with. Better still you can read it for free on the 37 signals website.
This is a quick read without a lot of substance. I feel like a lot of the principles advanced in the book were covered in Extreme Programming Explained. This book felt more like a collection of truisms. And as many folks on the startup sites I read, these strategies pretty much only work if you are 37Signals - other companies don't have the same kind of pull to be able to market stripped down applications as superior.
This is a very enjoyable book and certainly an extremely quick read, as is usually the case with 37s and their little-bs practice. It would earn more than three stars if it weren't the fact that the marginal value after reading Rework is barely enough to justify reading it.
Interesting opinion on how to build high quality products. How to avoid team growing not losing product quality. Do less, but qualitatively, choose right price for your product, take new developers only when it really need, do not afraid to take remote workers.
I've read it twice now. Just last week I went back and re-read it in anticipation of Rework being released. Looking forward to reading Rework this weekend. The short essay style format hits the spot for me. These topics shouldn't be long winded prose. Great read.
If you are thinking about building a web app or site..this book is a must. the author challenges you to move swiftly...even jettisoning business plans and to get something up and iterate. I appreciated this books ideas and perspectives.
I recommend this book not only to programmers, but to project managers and employees. A great approach to developing in baby steps instead of trying to add every option imaginable. I love their view on team work and communication.
Very good book from 37signals. It allows you to change your point of view about business at all and especially about web-based projects. This book encourages you to "get something real" now, don't wait, start your project today, now!
If you have read "Rework", you will find out that big part of "Getting Real" are nearly the same with "Rework", but it includes quotes from other books and authors so it's nice to read one more time.
If you have read "Rework", you will find out that big part of "Getting Real" are nearly the same with "Rework", but it includes quotes from other books and authors so it's nice to read one more time.
The precursor to Rework (which is an excellent and defining book all on its own), Getting Real is a brief and punchy read that will inspire the right type of reader.
The principles described in here apply more to business than simply making web apps.
The principles described in here apply more to business than simply making web apps.
I admit I read through it very quickly, but it seems to me as a dangerous book in the wrong hands. It hands out generic, ambiguous stems of ideas, general enough to be bent out of shape by a misguided manager.
It's written like a casual talk. You'd be just nodding your head until the end. Written from pure experience, it will give you practical advices and valuable points to consider, if not absorb.
Getting Real focuses on what is needed to design, create, deliver and support bare bones web applications. It is a group of essays compiled by the 37signals team, a designer-friendly group who have created Basecamp, a web-based project collaboration/management application, amongst others.
Whereas a lot of the material is sound, it comes off very preachy and is no stranger to mixed messages, at the same time encouraging people to find their own way while being blunt about their way being the right...more
Whereas a lot of the material is sound, it comes off very preachy and is no stranger to mixed messages, at the same time encouraging people to find their own way while being blunt about their way being the right...more
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