Review of Rework
What does “less is more” mean?
This book challenges a lot of assumptions, for example they take to task the phrase “learn from your mistakes” and say you should learn from your successes. They also want to ditch words like “startup” and “entrepreneur”, and mock the idea that starting a business with an exit strategy by saying it is setting yourself up to fail.
They also have a go at people who are saying that they don’t have enough time to do something – you do have time but you don’t want whatever it is enough to spend it differently. Try something for an hour a day and if it doesn’t work, fine. The cost of doing something new is minimal, the only problem is your own fear dressed up as a lack of time.
I titled this review as I did because it occurred to me as I listened to it that they are describing how you can have a business or enterprise without having lots of commitments and spending a lot of other people’s money from their own experiences. You hear “less is more” a lot and everyone strokes their chin and stares off into the middle distance and carries on as they were. This book actually describes how some very creative people show us all what the phrase means. Create half a useful product that’s well put together and delivers enough to be of value. Ideas are cheap, making them real is difficult, so take the path that makes them work.
Oh, and if you’re a workaholic, you won’t like what they say about you. And meeting addicts, hmm, you won’t like it either.
37 Signals site for the book Get an excerpt, look at the vids, you know the drill.
