It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work
by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson · first published 2018
61% recommend39% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Short, idea-dense case for running a calm, sane company: fixed deadlines with flexible scope, protecting people's time, staying small. Suits founders, managers and overworked staff rethinking work habits.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"In this timely manifesto, the authors of the New York Times bestseller Rework broadly reject the prevailing notion that long hours, aggressive hustle, and "whatever it takes" are required to run a successful business today." -- From Amazon.com summary. Fried and Hansson reject the prevailing notion that long hours, aggressive hustle, and "whatever it takes" are required to run a successful business today. They believe the answer to better productivity isn't more hours-- it's less waste and fewer things that induce distraction and persistent stress. No matter the size of your company, Fried a
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…used the time to work instead. Since last year, I've been slowly fixing my work habit (being a workaholic) and now try to only work less than or equal to 40 hours per week. Books like "Rework" and "It Doesn't Have To Be Crazy At Work" and following Jason Fried and DHH on Twitter really helped changed my perspective about work. I'm planning to curate a list of tools and resources for making a calm company or a calm workplace. So my…
on “Ask HN: Tools and resources for making a calm company or calm workplace?” ↗…Hamilton - Ron Chernow - Yes, the book the play is based on, but it goes into such great detail of the life of an incredible person. It’s hard to fathom what the United States would become without Hamilton. It Doesn’t have to be Crazy at work - Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson - Great, short read about why our corporate/entrepreneur culture is just crap. All this hustle, burnout, and destructive ideas are unnecessary and don’t really…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗…he wishes he had worked more or spent more time with family. Relationships NEED nurturing. Not making time to be together can and will kill your relationship. Check out "Deep Work - Cal Newport" and "It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work - by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson". You do read and do research on how to run your company and track your productivity, don't you? Or do you just fart your way through life and are consistently…
on “Ask HN: How do you manage long hours vs. spending time with loved ones?” ↗…determine our own actions. When someone can present an argument to you for an hour and a half uninterrupted, it also makes a difference - perhaps the best way to influence someone is to recommend a book. - It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy At Work, DHH and Jason Fried - made me rethink the tradeoff between working harder and working smarter. This book strongly debates how most companies structure PTO, the work week, meetings and so much more and…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗…Selection by Ken Kocienda - Great insight into how Apple teams develop products, and creating a “demo culture” 2. Bad Blood by John Carreyrou - Gripping prose and an altogether incredible storyline 3. It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried and DHH - Some great lessons in here (interspersed with other not-so-great ones) for creating a “culture of calm” within organizations 4. When The Bubble Bursts by Hilliard Macbeth - Insightful…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗Curious, I just red "It doesn't have to be crazy at work" by David Heinemeier Hansson. Could not be more true, we have created a toxic amoral culture that is making everyone miserable. This work thing, the whole point is to make our life better, not worse.
on “Workism Is Making Americans Miserable” ↗…me travel more than ever - Steve Jobs (Isaacson): amazing life story, beautifully described - The Mom Test: required reading for any young founder/PM IMO, I've gifted this more than any other book - It doesn't have to be crazy at work (DHH/Fried): best advice on how to run a company in a sustainable way to maximize team happiness & output - Masters of Doom: epically entertaining, super nostalgic
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗I think you'd really like Jason Fried's writing. You can find some short posts [here](https://m.signalvnoise.com/author/jason-fried/), but his book It doesn't have to be crazy at work is really great too.
on “Hire me and pay what you want, just give me interesting work” ↗…Performance/HR/Culture - Powerful (Patty McCord) - No Rules Rules (Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer) - Netflix culture deck - The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Patrick Lencioni) - Work Rules! (Laszlo Bock) - It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work (DHH and Jason Fried) - The Culture Map (Erin Meyer) - The Talent War (Mike Sarraille and George Randle) - Great People Decisions (Claudio Fernández-Aráoz) - The Holloway Guide to Technical Recruiting…
on “Ask HN: What books helped you in your entrepreneurship journey?” ↗…to get your data on the way out, and give a link, right there, to go get it * They give you your data * They cancel straight away, and ask if it's ok to survey you (optional). After reading the book It doesn't have to be crazy at work (https://basecamp.com/books/calm ) I understood the mentality perfectly. I wish them all the best for their product.
on “Don't hold users hostage, facilitate their exit” ↗I've been reading "It Doesn't Have to be Crazy at Work" and they have a chapter about this. Deadlines are great! Estimates are terrible, and humans are terrible at estimating. Scope needs to be elastic to accommodate this fact of life. If the project…
on “Agile won the war but lost the peace” ↗All books from Basecamp founders. Especially the first one - Getting Real. I preordered their latest book 'It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work'. A lot of their advice is aimed towards small teams. And often contrary to SV wisdom. We've built a few profitable businesses by following their advice without raising any funding.
on “Ask HN: As a technical founder what is the best business book you've read?” ↗Basecamp does all of those things... You really need to read up on how they operate before commenting about them like this. "It doesn't have to be crazy at work" is a good read that explains where they're coming from. Understanding that, this move is completely rational.
on ““About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”” ↗The book "It doesn't have to be crazy at work" [1] presents a nice approach to deal with deadlines: > [...] The date won’t move up and the date won’t move back. What’s variable is the scope of the problem—the work itself. But only on the downside.…
on “Deadlines Are Killing Us, and Almost Everything Else I Know About Leadership” ↗…the activity that takes up a significant portion of my life and adds considerable value to my work contributions. I think one of the smartest things businesses could do would be to follow Basecamp's "It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work" model, because calm, contemplative employees will come up with hugely profitable insights. As Kent Beck said, "Software is a leverage game." One insightful thought can save millions of dollars. I bet…
on “How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy” ↗