📖 ReWork

Change the Way You Work Forever

2010. Jason Fried, & David Heinemeier Hansson

ReWork is written by the two founders of Basecamp (formerly 37signals), DDH and Jason Fried. Written 10 years into growing their company—driven by the success of their project management software—this book captures their philosophies on how to run “a happy and healthy business”.

This wasn’t their first bit of writing. Their blog Signal v. Noise has always been popular, and they had written one short ebook four years earlier called “Getting Real”. However this book was a big hit and went on to be a NYT bestseller. They have also gone on to release two books since; “Remote: Office Not Required” (2013) and more recently “It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work” (2018).

The book is framed as a list of short essays on how to run a small business, covering nine core topics which include Competitors, Productivity, Culture, Competition. However their provocative advice typically flies in the face of conventional wisdom, which they obviously dial up here for maximum effect. But it’s not just bullshit to sell books, or contrarian advice for the sake of it. Having read lots of their stuff over the years, it’s clear they do believe and live out these principles in their company. They cover a huge range of topics from things like raising capital (“Outside money is Plan Z”) down to hiring tips (“Resumes are ridiculous”).

It’s a short book (I read it in a single sitting one evening, and i’m not a quick reader), and a simple read from two founders saying, look this is how we run our company, and it’s been working for us for over a decade now so we don’t think we are an anomaly.

People are writing more and more now about how work is no longer working in many ways. But this short, nine year old effort is still one of the more accessible, and engaging ones I have read.