Ep 27. Jason Fried: Signal vs. Noise -- Less Work, More Production
"We believe 40 hours is enough to do great work."
Jason Fried
Jason Fried is Co-Founder and CEO of Basecamp, a leading project management tool that has helped over 2.5 million users improve their organizational skills. Basecamp was founded in 1999 and today it has over 2.5 million users (including, full disclosure, the Work and Life podcast team). Jason writes a monthly column for Inc. Magazine, called “Get Real,” where he discusses his points of view on business and gives advice to aspiring entrepreneurs. The Basecamp company is known for designing beautiful web applications, offering a monthly stipend for massages, encouraging employees to work no more than 40 hours per week, and paying for vacations -- not just the time off, but the actual vacations.
Stew and Jason discuss the importance of being mindful and strategic about choosing how to invest your attention as a leader. They discuss the importance of uninterrupted time at work and the general unhelpfulness of meetings. Jason talks about how he and his team have positioned themselves in the “problem avoidance” business, in part by constraining their growth as a company over the year and in contrast to the generally accepted practice of pursuing growth no matter what the cost. Jason offers a vision of clarity in a marketplace cluttered with the counterproductive noise businesses too often generate themselves.
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