Last night, I attended a fireside chat at our co-working office with Jason Fried, CEO, and Co-Founder of Basecamp. (Heâs a prolific thinker and writer, so if you havenât had a chance to read his thoughts, you should.)
While Iâve read his ideas many times before, watching him lay those ideas out in person was so inspiring and helpful that I felt more people should get it. Jasonâs insights are amazing, and you always have something to take away from his thoughts, so I wanted to share some of them with our readers.
I wrote below with pronouns from the perspective of Jason as if he was doing the talking. Enjoy!
Why he gives away his business playbook for free
You can think of it as a chef giving away her recipe for free. Chefs donât hide their recipes; chefs give them away want people to know that theyâve done a decent job of crafting a delicious recipe. And if people like her recipe, then they might try her restaurant out someday. Itâs the same with business. There are no secrets in business; in fact, this is the way a lot of people got to know about Basecamp. We posted our thoughts for free. We never did âcontent marketingâ, we simply wrote what we want to write. Thoughts on how we work, how to make decisions, and how to run a business.
Why long-form, written communication is better than short-form messages.
Youâre expected to engage in immediate response when it comes to work. Real-time chats. Emails. Phone calls. Should you be answering your clientâs request at 10 PM? I donât think you should.
At Basecamp, we work asynchronously, and that means long-form text communication are prioritized. Long-form writing allows the writer to express her ideas in depth and the reader to better understand the context.
At work, write long-form texts than short-form text. The long-form text gives the writer and the reader some time to digest the topic, think, and respond. It makes the discussion more productive.
Short-form communication is dangerous at work. It doesnât reveal the full intent or emotion behind the writer. People misunderstand when you write too little.
On work
At Basecamp, we believe 40 hours a week is enough to do great work. Companies in Germany achieve great things even though most people work 32~40 hours a week. And 8 hours a day doesnât have to be in a single setting! It could be spread out throughout the day if you want. You canât work for 8 hours straight, and at times youâll be exhausted. You might have to take care of your kids or any other personal matter during the day.
Itâs okay to take care of your personal life. The more you do this, the better job youâll do at work, because you donât have to worry about your personal matter at work.
Even if you donât have things to take care of, itâs okay to day-dream if youâre feeling exhausted. If it feels youâre rushed at work, itâs okay to pause and think. We donât log hours for our employees, and itâs up to the employee to manage oneâs time.
On starting something
Build what you need. Itâs easier to solve your problems versus what you see in others. If you build what you need, you can judge whether what youâve built has value.
Basecamp was built because we needed a way to keep track of our projects when we were providing web development services to our clients. So we built it, then clients started to ask us if they could use it for their projects. Thatâs when we knew we had a product.
On JOMO (the Joy Of Missing Out)
Learning to let go and having some JOMO - Joy Of Missing Out - is essential when youâre leading a team. As a leader/CEO, you have this urge to step in and micromanage because itâs the work that you used to do. Assuming you hired great people, chances are youâre going to do more harm than good. Let them do their job.
Have some JOMO. Itâs okay to miss out a little. At Basecamp, we donât make people to know everything about whatâs going on in the company. It would be best if you only cared about what youâre working on. Information is all there if you like to know, but youâre not expected to.
On hiring
I read cover letters more often than resumes. In fact, I hardly ever read resumes. Cover letters are far more important because it reveals a lot more about the candidateâs personality than resumes do.
People write âdesigned Nike.comâ on their resumes. Yeah, that may be true, but probably with 40 other people, and you designed a small portion of it. Cover letters are different. Cover letters show whether this person just wants a job or wants to work at Basecamp.
By looking at cover letters, you can evaluate the candidateâs ability to express their ideas in writing as well. Basecamp only hires good writers. Itâs important for our employees to write well because thatâs how Basecamp works. We write to each other.
If we think a candidate is good, then we pay the person $1,500 to work on a week-long project with us. The work product is the only truth. If the candidate does a good job, weâll offer the position.
On compensation
We pay our employees with top tier salaries. San Francisco rate, no matter where you are. We pay the same amount of money to everyone in the same role/level. We do this to remove biases and negotiation out of the equation. You donât need to be an excellent negotiator to get paid for doing good work. Whatâs more important is feeling valued and knowing that you are treated fairly.
On advising startups and entrepreneurs
"Pull back on your ambitions."
Focus on getting smaller things right first. A lot of startups and entrepreneurs who tried to do everything from the beginning end up taking too long to get it right. Instead, you should focus on the essentials and get them right first. Just build the half of it and get that half right. Thatâs better than meeting peopleâs expectations halfway.
On managing emotions
Weâre humans! Embrace the fact that weâre humans. Thereâs going to be times where you will feel disappointed, sad, angry, and there will be times for joy, happiness, and laughter.
Be sure to check in on your people regularly. Donât wait for people to come to you, because they wonât. Approach them first with a positive mindset.