rework: full list of essays

FIRST

• The new reality

TAKEDOWNS

• Ignore the real world
• Learning from mistakes is overrated
• Planning is guessing
• Why grow?
• Workaholism
• Enough with “entrepreneurs”

GO

• Make a dent in the universe
• Scratch your own itch
• Start making something
• No time is no excuse
• Draw a line in the sand
• Mission statement impossible
• Outside money is Plan Z
• You need less than you think
• Start a business, not a start-up
• Building to flip is building to flop
• Less mass

PROGRESS

• Embrace constraints
• Build half, not half-ass
• Start at the epicenter
• Ignore the details early on
• Making the call is making progress
• Be a curator
• Throw less at the problem
• Focus on what won't change
• Tone is in your fingers
• Sell your by-products
• Launch now

PRODUCTIVITY

• Illusions of agreement
• Reasons to quit
• Interruption is the enemy of productivity
• Meetings are toxic
• Good enough is fine
• Quick wins
• Don't be a hero
• Go to sleep
• Your estimates suck
• Long lists don't get done
• Make tiny decisions

COMPETITORS

• Don't copy
• Decommoditize your product
• Pick a fight
• Underdo your competition
• Who cares what they’re doing?

EVOLUTION

• Say no by default
• Let your customers outgrow you
• Don’t confuse enthusiasm with priority
• Be at-home good
• Don’t write it down

PROMOTION

• Welcome obscurity
• Build an audience
• Out-teach your competition
• Emulate chefs
• Go behind the scenes
• Nobody likes plastic flowers
• Press releases are spam
• Forget about the Wall Street Journal
• Drug dealers get it right
• Marketing is not a department
• The myth of the overnight sensation

HIRING

• Do it yourself first
• Hire when it hurts
• Pass on great people
• Strangers at a cocktail party
• Resumes are ridiculous
• Years of irrelevance
• Forget about formal education
• Everybody works
• Hire managers of one
• Hire great writers
• The best are everywhere
• Test-drive employees

DAMAGE CONTROL

• Own your bad news
• Speed changes everything
• How to say you’re sorry
• Put everyone on the front lines
• Take a deep breath

CULTURE

• You don’t create a culture
• Decisions are temporary
• Skip the rock stars
• They’re not thirteen
• Send people home at 5:00
• Don’t scar on the first cut
• Sound like you
• Four-letter words
• ASAP is poison

CONCLUSION

• Inspiration is perishable

RESOURCES

• About 37signals
• 37signals products