Fried and Hansson storm the gates with a manifesto for every David with his sights set on a Goliath. Zealous evangelists of the think small set, this pair speaks mostly to those with ears to hear.
What’s Hot
Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson are practically sainted gurus in the Web 2.0 world and the converted-faithful as well as newbies may find much to like in this collection of essays based on their experiences of founding and running their legendary 37signals software company.
What’s Not
Some of the writing comes off more like preaching than advice. Although 37signals – and the philosophy behind it – has been a success, this volume sometimes reads more like the rantings of a celebrity diva than the grounded, thoughtful musings of a pair of business pioneers. One gets the feeling these two may be believing their own hype.
The Bottom Line
Since starting their company, this pair has been preaching that smaller, simpler and less can beat bigger, complex and more. Fried has advocated for “underdoing” the competition rather than overwhelming it. Clearly, these ideas fly in the face of decades of business thinking and haven’t always won the hearts and minds of critics and skeptics. Of course, these are the guys who are known for including a message to these same critics during their conference presentations: a slide with the simple text “F##k Off.” Rework has similarly found both raving praise (worked well for Ethos3) and jeering condemnation for its swaggering stance on why business as usual doesn’t work anymore.
Although the book derides more philosophical volumes and claims to be simply a distillation of the knowledge and experience the authors have gleaned from running their company, many of the ideas in the book are surprisingly unsupported. Broad statements and sweeping generalizations are never very effective, but when Rework makes declarations like “Meetings are toxic” or recommends that planning is not recommended, one feels a bit more than baffled. Clearly, some meetings are crucial to team efforts and opening a restaurant or a retail store without a plan would result in a fool’s quest at best. Some of this may be great advice for a small software startup, but it’s surely not for everybody.
That said, the core of the book is a solid – even visionary at times – manifesto about the Aikido – like strategies that have created their greatest successes: “underdoing the competition;” “straightforward beats complex;” “build half a product, not a half-assed product.”
If you’re already a fan of Fried and Hansson’s confrontational no-nonsense, you’ll find much to like here. If – on the other hand – you pass on these two like a Christmas fruitcake, perhaps you should think again. Sure, Fried and Hansson are brash and bratty. However, their success shows that they’re also on to something.