Jason Fried

Founder & CEO at 37signals (makers of Basecamp and HEY). Non-serial entrepreneur, serial author (Getting Real, REWORK, REMOTE, It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work). Email me at jason@hey.com.

Co-founder & CEO

THE BIG REGRESSION

My folks are in town visiting us for a couple months so we rented them a house nearby.

It’s new construction. It’s amped up with state of the art systems. The ones with touchscreens of various sizes, IoT appliances, and interfaces on everything.

And it’s terrible. What a regression.

The lights are powered by Control4. They require a demo to understand how to use the switches, understand which ones control what, and to be sure not to hit THAT ONE because it’ll turn off all the lights in the house when you didn’t mean to. Worse.

The TV is the latest Samsung which has a baffling UI just to watch CNN. My parents aren’t idiots, but definitely feel like they’re missing something obvious. They aren’t — TVs have simply gotten worse. You don’t turn them on, you boot them up.

The new Miele dishwasher wouldn’t even operate the first time without connecting it to an app. This meant another call to the house manager to have them install an app they didn’t know they needed either. An app to clean some peanut butter off a plate? For serious? Worse.

Thermostats... Nest would have been fine, but these other proprietary ones from some other company trying to be Nest-like are baffling. Round touchscreens that take you into a dark labyrinth of options just to be sure it’s set at 68. Or is it 68 now? Or is that what we want it at, but it’s at 72? Wait... What? Which number is this? Worse.

The alarm system is essentially a 10” iPad bolted to the wall that has the fucking weather forecast on it. And it's so bright! I’m sure there’s a way to turn that off, but then the screen would be filled with the news instead. Why isn't this just the alarm? Worse.

And there's lag and delay everywhere. Everything feels a beat or two behind. Lag is the giveaway that the system is working too hard for too little.

Now look... I’m no luddite. But this experience is close to conversion therapy. Tech can make things better, but not here. I’ve heard the pitches — you can set up scenes so one button can change EVERYTHING. Not buying it. It actually feels primitive, like we haven’t figured out how to make things easy yet. That some breakthrough will eventually come when you can simply knock a switch up or down and it’ll all makes sense.

It’s really the contrast that makes it alarming. We just got back from a vacation in Montana. Rented a house there. They did have a fancy TV — seems those can’t be avoided these days — but everything else was old school and clear. Physical up/down light switches in the right places. Appliances without the internet. Buttons with depth and physically-confirmed state change rather than surfaces that don’t obviously register your choice. More traditional round rotating Honeywell thermostats that are just clear and obvious. No tours, no instructions, no questions, no fearing you’re going to do something wrong, no wondering how something works. Useful and universally clear. That’s human, that’s modern.

AGAIN?

When we measure things, answers usually come as numbers. But there’s a different kind of measurement I have in mind most of the time.

It’s a simple, one-word question: Again?

You can go through rigorous employee performance reviews to try to decide if someone’s doing their job well, or you can simply ask “Knowing what we know now, would we hire this person AGAIN?”

You can load up the calendar with postmortems and data analysis sessions, or you can simply ask “Would we want to do that AGAIN?”

You can attempt to justify to yourself why something made sense on paper, or you can simply ask “Would I make that decision AGAIN?”

Do I want to work with this team AGAIN? Would I want to work at this company AGAIN? Would I want to work on this project or product AGAIN? Would I want to visit this city AGAIN?

At this point, I quietly ask myself “Again?” all the time. When things go right, when things go wrong, when I’m not even sure which way they’ve gone, I’ll ask myself “Again?” The answer is obvious.

What’s great about this is that things that would objectively measure as “wrong” can be absolutely worth it when you ask the question “Again?” With again, you aren’t just measuring outcome, you’re also measuring experience. Experience contains outcome, and a whole lot more.

Maybe that was a flop commercially, but it was worth it broadly, so yes, I’d still do it all over again. Or, wow, that was a smashing success but it really beat me down... Would I do it again? “No” is perfectly valid, and correct, in that case.

Asking “Again?” is one of the simplest things you can do, and it’ll mine some of the richest answers you’ll find. It tells the whole truth in a way that numbers never do.

The original Cuisinart was peak interface/appliance design.

Two perfect paddle buttons.

One for ON that catches and stays down for continual operation.

And one for PULSE/OFF that does exactly what it says. It doesn't stay down, it returns to reset when you let go. Hold it down as long as you want to pulse. Let go and it stops. Or just push it down to disengage ON, and turn it off.

The description may sound a bit convoluted because of the dual purpose PULSE/OFF button, but when you use it it's absolutely obvious. And couldn't be better.

Big flat toggle buttons under satisfying tension. Clear affordances. You push them down, not in. One click catches, one doesn't. You can use them with bare hands, oven mitts, fingers coated in slippery whatever. Doesn't matter. Plenty of surface area.

Outstanding design. It's been all downhill from there.

ANYTHING DESIGNERS

Do designers like Raymond Lowey or Henry Dreyfus exist anymore? Designers who can design anything?

These guys designed locomotives, thermostats, telephones, buildings, ocean liners, company logos, typewriters, vacuum cleaners, floor polishers, product packaging, cars, bottles, aircraft interiors, livery, stamps, radios, tractors, even space station interiors!

The depth, breadth, quality, and taste of their work is astonishing. Where are these people today? Who are these people today? Who's working across so many different industries, mediums, product types, and categories at such a high level?

https://lnkd.in/gKC2UYFt
https://lnkd.in/gd5G-PSJ

What's your longest software relationship?

Basecamp and I have been together since 2008. We've never even discussed seeing other project management tools.

It helped me win student body president at Northwestern. I launched the very first coding bootcamp with it and orchestrated a Chicago mayoral campaign on it. It powered every course I've taught, and every Techstars program I've managed. Now it's how we run customer discovery at Shokuna, with some AI automations I've wired up on top of it.

37signals has been building for the web since 1999. They launched Basecamp  in 2004. And now I'm watching Jason tease "Basecamp 5" like it's a Marvel post-credits scene.

So now I'm curious: What software has actually stuck for you? Not what IT force-fed you - what you chose, kept choosing, and would mass-email your complaints about if they ever killed it?

 Invoke Studio

- Key member of the initial design team for PairApp, a platform tailored for Engineering managers to enhance team management. This application enables teams to conduct asynchronous daily standups, seamlessly arrange pairing sessions, and offer feedback
- Collaborated as part of the core team on PairApp's architectural design and executed the development strategy through the first, second, and third stages of development
- Authored design documents for each added feature and reviewed design documents submitted by peers to ensure alignment and quality

Full Stack Ruby on Rails Developer

The Agency of Learning

StartupsOnRails.com

Building the largest listing of startups built on Ruby on Rails.
Ruby on Rails is the best framework for building businesses because it was created for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. By showcasing the different types of companies built on Ruby on Rails, we aim to inspire the next generation of successful builders and entrepreneurs.

StartupsOnRails

Deev.me

Devv.me

Epunchit LLC

•	Managed team of 17 (developers, sales, operations, and interns)
•	Conducted market analysis to identify product-market fit
•	Managed sales development and signed up over 140 restaurants in Southern California 
•	Managed User Development Team 
•	Developed business plan and pitched investors

 Product and Business Development

JPMorgan Chase

•     Was in charged of developing relationships with small and medium size business

Business/Personal Banker

I am a Ruby on Rails developer with a unique blend of skills and interests. My passion for marketing, user acquisition, and the lean startup approach drive my entrepreneurial spirit. I have a mix of formal education from a development bootcamp and self-taught skills that have been honed through my experience. Currently, I am working on an exciting project that is documenting all apps built on Ruby/Rails, as well as other applications. I am always looking for new challenges and opportunities to grow my skills and make an impact in the tech industry.


Front End: JavaScript, CSS, HTML, Bootstrap, Vue.JS, Hotwire, Stimulus.JS
Back End: Ruby, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, JQuery, PostgreSQL, RSpec BDD/TDD, Git/Github, Google Analytics.
Testing/Deployment: Minitest, Rspec, AWS S3, Heroku

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Jason Fried

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The Battle

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jason Fried's LinkedIn Performance

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