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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
The intention and ideas are great, but I wish the authors cited more examples that are not from their company. But still, I learned a lot from and I hope that more people in the corporate world get to read this.
This book is the kid who flipped off the camera during school pictures, took a year off to travel, got C's in college, missed a lot of parties, and somehow got the happily-ever-after everyone else dreams about.
Maybe its best quality is the way it wrecks traditional business memes, from "out-work the competition" to "open floor plans foster collaboration" to "set high goals." I'm giddy just thinking about all the cufflink-wearing, LinkedIn-post-writing entrepreneur-thought-leader types this book will infuriate.
At its core the message is simple. Money isn't everything. Progress isn't always worth it. People are more important than goals. And the emperor has no clothes.
It's also an impressive advertisement for working at Basecamp. I mean, they take Fridays off all summer just because they can. If I were looking for a job right now, that's exactly the kind of place I'd want to be. Somewhere quiet, sustainable, and laid-back; somewhere that isn't drunk on growth and metrics. That's a place with swagger.
Maybe its best quality is the way it wrecks traditional business memes, from "out-work the competition" to "open floor plans foster collaboration" to "set high goals." I'm giddy just thinking about all the cufflink-wearing, LinkedIn-post-writing entrepreneur-thought-leader types this book will infuriate.
At its core the message is simple. Money isn't everything. Progress isn't always worth it. People are more important than goals. And the emperor has no clothes.
It's also an impressive advertisement for working at Basecamp. I mean, they take Fridays off all summer just because they can. If I were looking for a job right now, that's exactly the kind of place I'd want to be. Somewhere quiet, sustainable, and laid-back; somewhere that isn't drunk on growth and metrics. That's a place with swagger.
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
I'd recommend this book to owners, founders and senior leaders - anyone who can influence or dictate workplace norms. I would not recommend this book to most employees, as they will probably want to quit their job and go work at Basecamp.
It sounds like Basecamp's founders (and this book's authors) have done a great job creating a calm culture through trial and error and mindful choices. They challenge commonly held assumptions and address many of my personal grievances of corporate life, such as 24/7 communication, never-ending chat, growth without question, etc. I also appreciate their writing style: it reads like a conversation (complete with swearing in the same places I'd sprinkle f-bombs) and concise. (Either they have more restraint than the average writer, or they have a hell of an editor.)
My two criticisms:
1. The tone should be a bit more humble. These guys run a successful multi-million business with 40 people, so they've definitely earned their stripes, but in the scheme of things, a 40 person company
has a different set of challenges than larger organizations. They have an obligatory nod to that in here once or twice, but the overall tone seems to be, "We've got it all figured out. Anyone doing something else is an idiot."
2. They trash on goals. Don't get me wrong - I tend to think a lot of goals are useless and demoralizing. There's an art to setting effective and motivating goals. And some goals are absolutely critical to help multiple people coordinate so they know they're a) moving in the right direction and b) making progress. I feel like they've thrown the baby out with the bathwater here because they've not yet discovered how to set effective goals.
Alas. Overall, it's a solid read and one I'll probably give as gifts to the founders/owners and other top-level executives in my life. And I'll eagerly await their next book - which probably does nothing to contribute to the humility I wish they possessed. :)
It sounds like Basecamp's founders (and this book's authors) have done a great job creating a calm culture through trial and error and mindful choices. They challenge commonly held assumptions and address many of my personal grievances of corporate life, such as 24/7 communication, never-ending chat, growth without question, etc. I also appreciate their writing style: it reads like a conversation (complete with swearing in the same places I'd sprinkle f-bombs) and concise. (Either they have more restraint than the average writer, or they have a hell of an editor.)
My two criticisms:
1. The tone should be a bit more humble. These guys run a successful multi-million business with 40 people, so they've definitely earned their stripes, but in the scheme of things, a 40 person company
has a different set of challenges than larger organizations. They have an obligatory nod to that in here once or twice, but the overall tone seems to be, "We've got it all figured out. Anyone doing something else is an idiot."
2. They trash on goals. Don't get me wrong - I tend to think a lot of goals are useless and demoralizing. There's an art to setting effective and motivating goals. And some goals are absolutely critical to help multiple people coordinate so they know they're a) moving in the right direction and b) making progress. I feel like they've thrown the baby out with the bathwater here because they've not yet discovered how to set effective goals.
Alas. Overall, it's a solid read and one I'll probably give as gifts to the founders/owners and other top-level executives in my life. And I'll eagerly await their next book - which probably does nothing to contribute to the humility I wish they possessed. :)
Let me start off my review by stating that I enjoyed reading this book, and I agreed with many concepts the authors were advocating, but the practices and theories mentioned in this book should be taken with a grain of salt rather than be treated as a bible. Take what can be applied to your organization and only that, don't attempt to fully restructure your company or your work habits based on this book because what works for someone else may not work for you.
Some of the concepts mentioned are honestly just commonsense, the problem is many of us have been conditioned to believe overworking and overstretching ourselves is the only way to success, which is not true. For example, my standard work schedule is 40hr/wk, but I often stay at work for over 12 hours a day to avoid traffic, end up doing more work than intended and feeling drained and exhausted all the time. I do not have time for any hobbies, the most I could do during a work day is to grab a quick dinner with friends. During the weekend I am far too tired to do anything, it's an unhealthy, viscous cycle.
This book serves as a great reminder to myself that, maintaining a healthy work life balance is essential to my personal growth, mental health, and most importantly, allowing me to perform better at my job without having to sacrifice my personal life and rest time for it. Below are some quotes that I think are important to remember:
The opportunity to do another good day’s work will come again tomorrow, even if you go home at a reasonable time.
If you can’t fit everything you want to do within 40 hours per week, you need to get better at picking what to do, not work longer hours. Most of what we think we have to do, we don’t have to do at all. It’s a choice, and often it’s a poor one.
A great work ethic isn’t about working whenever you’re called upon. It’s about doing what you say you’re going to do, putting in a fair day’s work, respecting the work, respecting the customer, respecting coworkers, not wasting time, not creating unnecessary work for other people, and not being a bottleneck. Work ethic is about being a fundamentally good person that others can count on and enjoy working with.
The authors also touched base on work culture and how we should prioritize our workload - by saying no to people allows the team to focus on what matters the most, instead of keep making new promises and imposing new deadlines that they may not be able to achieve. As they stated: The deadline should be comfortably approaching, not scarily arriving. Remember: Deadlines, not dreadlines.
The authors described many of the work habits that we do today as "toxic", which I agreed to a certain extent. Unfortunately I don't believe the majority of us can achieve what the authors are doing at Basecamp in the near future, but start by changing our mindset to take care of ourselves a little more, and stop over stressing and overworking ourselves all the time is always a good start.
Some of the concepts mentioned are honestly just commonsense, the problem is many of us have been conditioned to believe overworking and overstretching ourselves is the only way to success, which is not true. For example, my standard work schedule is 40hr/wk, but I often stay at work for over 12 hours a day to avoid traffic, end up doing more work than intended and feeling drained and exhausted all the time. I do not have time for any hobbies, the most I could do during a work day is to grab a quick dinner with friends. During the weekend I am far too tired to do anything, it's an unhealthy, viscous cycle.
This book serves as a great reminder to myself that, maintaining a healthy work life balance is essential to my personal growth, mental health, and most importantly, allowing me to perform better at my job without having to sacrifice my personal life and rest time for it. Below are some quotes that I think are important to remember:
The opportunity to do another good day’s work will come again tomorrow, even if you go home at a reasonable time.
If you can’t fit everything you want to do within 40 hours per week, you need to get better at picking what to do, not work longer hours. Most of what we think we have to do, we don’t have to do at all. It’s a choice, and often it’s a poor one.
A great work ethic isn’t about working whenever you’re called upon. It’s about doing what you say you’re going to do, putting in a fair day’s work, respecting the work, respecting the customer, respecting coworkers, not wasting time, not creating unnecessary work for other people, and not being a bottleneck. Work ethic is about being a fundamentally good person that others can count on and enjoy working with.
The authors also touched base on work culture and how we should prioritize our workload - by saying no to people allows the team to focus on what matters the most, instead of keep making new promises and imposing new deadlines that they may not be able to achieve. As they stated: The deadline should be comfortably approaching, not scarily arriving. Remember: Deadlines, not dreadlines.
The authors described many of the work habits that we do today as "toxic", which I agreed to a certain extent. Unfortunately I don't believe the majority of us can achieve what the authors are doing at Basecamp in the near future, but start by changing our mindset to take care of ourselves a little more, and stop over stressing and overworking ourselves all the time is always a good start.
inspiring
fast-paced
Mostly, this book reads (or sounds, since I listened to the audiobook) like an extended recruitment ad for Basecamp, the company founded by the authors. A not ineffective one, to be sure! But not exactly helpful.
The remainder is advice primarily for owners of or high-level managers at businesses with a significant number of employees. Very little is relevant to individual contributors, or to the self-employed, or to lower-level managers who can't affect major policies and benefits at their companies.
The remainder is advice primarily for owners of or high-level managers at businesses with a significant number of employees. Very little is relevant to individual contributors, or to the self-employed, or to lower-level managers who can't affect major policies and benefits at their companies.
Some good ideas, some ridiculous oversimplifications. The overall message is absolutely right though: many people think that effective work means working long hours and looking busy and running around in a rush. But calm and focus is much more effective in practice.
Calling this a book is a bit disingenuous since it's really more a collection of mostly anecdotal insights with a very specific context. There's very little structure here and it definitely has a feeling of an 'us vs them' mentality when talking about most of the ideas it brings up. However, it kinda works. It gets its message across without the usual fluff that these types of business books usually have and I found myself agreeing with the concepts most of the time.
Does it make some ideas sound easier to implement than they probably are? Almost definitely. Does it fail to acknowledge many root causes for the way things are usually done? Very often, actually. Should their insights and suggestions be discounted because of these and other minor flaws? No. Treating employees as people with lives outside of work shouldn't really even be a debate at this point. A mentality of 'succeed at all costs' isn't healthy in the long term and this book makes a great argument that it doesn't have to be that way to run a successful business.
I think the core principle behind this book is that the current norms in most businesses aren't actually that great and it sets out to highlight some examples of how one company has gotten success by taking a calmer approach and putting its employees first. Would I want to work in an environment like the one they describe? Definitely. I often found myself comparing it to my current place of work and realizing why so many aspects are frustrating and counter-productive in many ways.
It's a short read and definitely worth it if you're not familiar with the author's work. It does require the obligatory pinch of salt, but even if many of the ideas aren't quite applicable to you, it's worth having them pointed out and thinking on them since most are actually just good sense that people ignore because we're so stuck in this weird work culture that really doesn't work on so many levels.
Does it make some ideas sound easier to implement than they probably are? Almost definitely. Does it fail to acknowledge many root causes for the way things are usually done? Very often, actually. Should their insights and suggestions be discounted because of these and other minor flaws? No. Treating employees as people with lives outside of work shouldn't really even be a debate at this point. A mentality of 'succeed at all costs' isn't healthy in the long term and this book makes a great argument that it doesn't have to be that way to run a successful business.
I think the core principle behind this book is that the current norms in most businesses aren't actually that great and it sets out to highlight some examples of how one company has gotten success by taking a calmer approach and putting its employees first. Would I want to work in an environment like the one they describe? Definitely. I often found myself comparing it to my current place of work and realizing why so many aspects are frustrating and counter-productive in many ways.
It's a short read and definitely worth it if you're not familiar with the author's work. It does require the obligatory pinch of salt, but even if many of the ideas aren't quite applicable to you, it's worth having them pointed out and thinking on them since most are actually just good sense that people ignore because we're so stuck in this weird work culture that really doesn't work on so many levels.
Because "crazy at work" companies, individuals, and habits get more than enough recognition and celebration and because so many of the benefits of calm, quiet work are intangible and hard to recognize, this is a book I really appreciate and will try to re-read with regularity.