Book review: REWORK by Jason Fried
In the book Rework, the founders of 37signals share their experiences. How a small company manages to create popular products, be mentioned in well-known publications and be profitable. The authors suggest not holding meetings, stop long-term planning and work until night. Business principles that have become classics for us are destroyed by writers in every chapter.
Meetings are toxic:
- a lot of time is spent on empty talk;
- participants leave the intended topic;
- there will always be a half-wit who spends all his time on nonsense.
It looks like a typical meeting. There are many other prejudices in the book that we face at work every day — the book can be called “Business Reverse”. But are the authors as right as it seems at first.
Each opinion is expressed as personal and occasionally supported by facts about other companies. For example, it is proposed to first say “no” to each idea: it is more difficult to refuse, but then the conscience will not be tormented for unjustified expectations of customers. I personally tried this technique, always initially refusing and as a result received negative feedback from colleagues, and the client called me a dunce. In fact, there is no need to rush to refuse and there is no need to agree. First you need to figure out and evaluate whether there is a share of grain in the idea. If not, then refuse and explain why, and if there is, then explain that it is impossible to do everything at once, and if the idea gains weight, then we will do it.
The authors rather categorically describe the ideas, missing the details. I think that the whole point is in the details and for a beginner, the book can be both a guide to action — and nothing else, so you need to be careful. Of course, the thoughts of the authors are correct: bureaucracy, perfectionism and blind adherence lead nowhere, but each situation needs to be examined in more detail. Meetings are for team building and require preparation and a moderator. Much more interesting for a manager to read when and how to hold meetings. Now, when there is so much information about the experience of startups, it would be more important to conduct research, and not act as an opinion leader.
Nevertheless, I recommend that every perfectionist and alarmist read the book — I think it will allow you to look at many things in a new way.