It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work

In one sense, this book is a giant book of “DUH” • Employees should not be expected to work after work. 40 hours is plenty. • Team communication does not need an immediate response. • Less meetings • Equal pay for equal seniority. • Focus on process/gradual improvement vs. arbitrary goals • CEO’s should think through how a sudden idea or words can alter the course of company culture and how projects get done ...the list goes on But sadly, these “duhness” principles seem to be the exception in the working world. As an employee of a company who adopts a small share of their principles, I hope this book will serve as a symbol for change. My knee jerk reaction to this book was its mainly for CEOs, founders, and managers, those in positions of power, to implement the ideas in this book. While I think they do hold the greater share of responsibility to make the change, I believe it is a interdependent change on employer and employee. For employees, it's a call to analyze your own workplace habits and get better at drawing boundaries. Akin to how holding hidden expectations in a relationship will corrode the relationship if not communicated, acting as if your situation is futile without trying is the easy way out. Look I am scared here. Speaking up I risk being shut down or worse getting fired. However, I feel like it is the right thing to do. The challenge is communicating the ideas in this book so they will be listened to. Rome was not built in a day. And for those in positions of power, this book shows it does not have to be a trade off between accomplishing something great and having a life outside work. I get that this is an uphill battle as popular culture celebrates the grinders, hustlers...the blood sweat and tears that people wear as a badge of honor. As the book title suggest, there’s a calmer way. This book shows it can be YES AND, not EITHER/OR. Yes you can be effective at work, become rich, leave a dent in this universe AND have a life outside it. Your legacy can be you left a trail of happy, healthy humans who genuinely thought of you as a good boss or manager. You’re happier. They’re happier. You can see your family, friends, and so can they. That seems pretty good to me, even if you don’t accomplish your mission of saving the whales :) As a fan of Basecamp for sometime, many of these ideas you’ll find on their blog, however, the book feels different. From the choice on ordering how the ideas are presented, the illustrations, and just physical love for books...it’s different than the blog. If you’re hesitant because the blog is free, do yourself a favor and get the living, breathing thing. Having this book is a great reminder; a great reminder of the world I’d like to live in. A great reminder that there is a saner way to work.

I really enjoyed reading all of Jason & David's books, and "It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work" is no exception. They do an exceptional job of taking ideas and distilling them down to their basic essence, and then describing them in a way that is easy to read, easy to understand, and exciting to think about. You can read this book in a single sitting, then come away feeling energized to put it all into practice at your own work.

I’ve been a fan of these guys for years and I’m also a Basecamp customer so I’ve been following their path for a while now and was excited to see Jason doing a Q&A at Laracon this year. Those are some of the reasons I jumped in to buy this book but that just got me interested. I thought the book itself was fantastic and that it lived up to the hype. Our culture says that we should do whatever it takes to succeed. Put in 80 hours if need be, work through the weekend, push through, hustle. Do it for the team, the family life can wait. Rightly so they call B.S. on this and give plenty of examples from their company and from many leaders in their respective fields. Here is one of my favorite quotes related to this from the book: "A great work ethic isn’t about working whenever you’re called upon. It’s about doing what you say you’re going to do, putting in a fair day’s work, respecting the work, respecting the customer, respecting coworkers, not wasting time, not creating unnecessary work for other people, and not being a bottleneck." As I flip back through my copy of the book, almost every page has a highlight or sentences underlined. So much of this hit home to me. Another one of my favorite quotes is related to how many companies claim “we are all a family”: "The best companies aren’t families. They’re supporters of families. Allies of families. They’re there to provide healthy, fulfilling work environments so that when workers shut their laptops at a reasonable hour, they’re the best husbands, wives, parents, siblings, and children they can be." Right now where I work employees just four people outside of the owners and it does feel like a family because we are close, but they 100% follow what the quote above points out and it’s amazing working for a place like that. In fact, much of what is outlined in the book my employer already does, to say I’m lucky in that regard is an understatement. It Doesn’t Have To Be Crazy At Work is set up in distinct sections with essay’s that support the overarching goal of the section. This allows the book to touch on many different areas of running a business but also makes it accessible to managers, and employees. All wound together in a book that can be read in a short time. Unlike most business books, they’ve left out the cruft and put all the focus on getting their points across as quickly and sufficiently as possible. It’s a five-star rating from me and you should buy a copy, read it, then give it to your boss or employees.

Un petit chef d'œuvre de simplicité, de conseils pratiques et positifs. Comment construire une entreprise "calme" en suivant quelques règles simples. 225 pages, 66 thèmes = 3 pages par thème. La lecture est facile, rapide, chacun des thèmes abordés, des conseils prodigués est en apparence évident, mais c'est en fait une remise en cause totale des principes de management de l'immense majorité des entreprises, et en particulier des plus grandes. Un grand merci à ces deux dirigeants qui montrent que l'on peut réussir, très bien, sans créer de stress inutile pour ses collaborateurs.

I love this book. “Many best practices are purely folklore. Resist. You always have a choice. A business is a collection of choices.” In this book you`ll find hundreds of choices that the authors took. “Wisdom” in business management is questioned and turned around. Everything that has been praised and preached, they do it differently. “Best companies are NOT families.” And please “do NOT go to war over people. There are a lot of great people everywhere.” “We’ve found that nurturing untapped potential is far more exhilarating than finding someone who`s already at their peak.” Why is “whatever it takes” so popular? “You are NOT actually capturing a hill on the beach of Normandy, are you? Reasonable expectations are out the window with whatever it takes.” Basecamp calls itself a calm company. “A calm company is a choice. Calm is about reasonable expectations. Calm is smaller. Calm is sustainable practices for the long term.” “When calm starts early, calm becomes the habit.” A calm company should be the default way instead of “hustlemania”. The authors: “You have our permission to bury the hustle.” “We don't need to shoot up on risk to get excited about work.” “The only way to get more done is to have less to do. Eliminate 7 of the 12 things.” The business world is suffering from ambition hyperinflation, which is claiming: “BRAND NEW. CHANGES EVERYTHING. Thousand revolutions promised at once. If you label your own work as disruption, it probably isn`t.” At Basecamp they don`t live by FOMO but show “JOMO: Joy of missing out. Stop treating every little thing that happens at work like it`s breaking news.” The book is about good salaries, good sleep, good weekends, good vacations, good teams, good software releases on Mondays instead of Fridays.

I am a BaseCamp user and a great fan of DHH, however I read the book without expectations or reverence. It's a great product, very easy to read but very effective. Being the "hustler gonna hustler" kind of guy, I find it quite fascinating. Very recommended especially if you're the 24/7 kind of worker.

Para mí, los libros de esta gente (Rework, Remote y este) son mi MBA. Aportan un punto de vista sobre el mundo empresarial más cercano, más amable, menos frenético, pero no por ello menos exigente (su empresa Basecamp crece cada año sin parar de dar beneficios)

And I recommend this book, one of the best book I ever read