ReWork

by Jason Fried

If you hire based on this garbage, you’re missing the point of what hiring is about. You want a specific candidate who cares specifically about your company, your products, your customers, and your job.

Years of irrelevance We’ve all seen job ads that say, “Five years of experience required.” That may give you a number, but it tells you nothing.

Some of the misguided lessons you learn in academia: The longer a document is, the more it matters. Stiff, formal tone is better than being conversational. Using big words is impressive. You need to write a certain number of words or pages to make a point. The format matters as much (or more) than the content of what you write.

Everybody works With a small team, you need people who are going to do work, not delegate work. Everyone’s got to be producing. No one can be above the work.

being a good writer is about more than writing. Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking. Great writers know how to communicate. They make things easy to understand. They can put themselves in someone else’s shoes.

Two to four hours of overlap should be plenty.

Geography just doesn’t matter anymore. Hire the best talent, regardless of where it is.

You don’t create a culture. It happens. This is why new companies don’t have a culture. Culture is the byproduct of consistent behavior.

If you encourage people to share, then sharing will be built into your culture. If you reward trust, then trust will be built in. If you treat customers right, then treating customers right becomes your culture.

Culture is action, not words.

The ability to change course is one of the big advantages of being small.

As the saying goes, “If you want something done, ask the busiest person you know.” You want busy people. People who have a life outside of work. People who care about more than one thing. You shouldn’t expect the job to be someone’s entire life—at least not if you want to keep them around for a long time.

Talk to customers the way you would to friends.

Write to be read, don’t write just to write. Whenever you write something, read it out loud. Does it sound the way it would if you were actually talking to someone? If not, how can you make it more conversational?

Who said writing needs to be formal? Who said you have to strip away your personality when putting words on paper? Forget rules. Communicate!

ASAP is poison Stop saying ASAP. We get it. It’s implied. Everyone wants things done as soon as they can be done.

Inspiration is a magical thing, a productivity multiplier, a motivator. But it won’t wait for you. Inspiration is a now thing. If it grabs you, grab it right back and put it to work.

Thank you for reading our book We hope it inspires you to rework how you do things. If so, drop a line to rework@basecamp.com and let us know how it’s going. We look forward to hearing from you.