A review by mattpfarr
It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work by David Heinemeier Hansson, Jason Fried

5.0

This is a great leadership/management book. It really runs against a lot of common "things to do" regarding leadership. We often get too caught up in what the norms are to manage people and don't stop to think if there might be a better way or even more importantly is it worth the cost to our humanity. To often we are driven my production/profit at all costs and completely throw aside that we are all humans and this is not our best foot forward. This book challenges that thinking and instead tries to integrate the idea that people can have satisfaction and delight and *gasp* still get shit done! As a recovering workaholic this challenged me greatly and I was convicted of integrating damaging leadership principles I had learned into my own leadership. Things that were well meaning on my part but probably did not do well for those that worked for me. Yeah maybe we were able to get the job done as long as "the job" did not include taking care of my team. However, as a leader, that is the primary job of the leader. There is a phrase about leaders that don't get this: horrible leaders

If you are a leader in any capacity and care at all about your team, I highly recommend this book. But be ready to have conventional thinking challenged and be open to looking at what bullshit you were taught or picked up. You won't get much out of this if you only care about the bottom line or don't have an open mind.