How to make firing people suck less for them and suck more for you

Hunting for great names in programming

One of the real delights of programming is picking great variable, method, and class names. But an even greater treat is when you can name pairs, or even whole narratives, that fit just right. And the very best of those is when you’re forced to trade off…

The writing class I’d like to teach

During Q&A at a conference I spoke at a few years back, someone asked me “What’s your take on the…

It’s urgent! (Really?)

I’m not exaggerating when I say that since I joined Basecamp, I’ve been questioning everything about the way I’ve traditionally worked. For example, let’s take the knowledge worker’s staple — email. Most professionals (including me) went from using email to communicate asynchronously, as…

Give me less, I’ll pay more

I’m a sucker for controversial trade-offs. Companies that dare say “this one thing is more important than this…

Product Design Decisions: What’s in a name? Purpose!

What you call it is probably better than what we…

(Not) Shipping is a Virtue

One of the most important Basecamp features I ever designed never actually…

Why You Should Care Less

Relationships are weird.