It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work. If that is the title of the book, I am already hooked. The book is written by Basecamp Co-founders – Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson. And if you are here only for the summary of the review, here it is –
For most parts, I loved the book. I have always been a big advocate of well-being at work. And this book is all about that. Some chapters were really intriguing and on topics that I had not thought of before. While other chapters were pure common sense (which is not very common these days). But it was a good validation of some of my existing ideas. Some topics were just downright contradicting to others in the same book. Which put me off at times. Overall, I would definitely recommend everyone to give this a read.
Lessons learned from – It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work
1. Your company or your team should be your best product
This was an eye-opener for me. I had never looked at my firm or my team as a ‘product’ that can be iterated on. But it makes complete sense. Just as you keep working on improving your product or service, you need to keep working on your team too. Ideate. Implement. Test. Repeat.
2. The Owner’s word weighs a Ton
The writers argue that there is no such thing as a casual suggestion when it comes from the owner of the business. You can apply the same logic to the leadership of the company. So if you are in a position of management, realize the importance of your words and how they can cause ripple effects.
It takes great restraint as the leader of an organization not to keep lobbing ideas at everyone else. Every such idea is a pebble that’s going to cause ripples when it hits the surface. Throw enough pebbles in the pond and the overall picture becomes as clear as mud.
3. Ignore the talent wars
The book states, and I agree, that it is always wiser to nurture the in-house talent than spend more time, energy, and resources to find the right person. It has become more evident and problematic in the great resignation phase that the world is going through right now.
Stop thinking of talent as something to be plundered and start thinking of it as something to be grown and nurtured, the seeds for which are readily available all over the globe for companies willing to do the work.
4. Make it up as you go
Basecamp as a company doesn’t believe in long-term planning. They work on their product 6 weeks at a time. And I think I agree with that philosophy. One-year, two-year, or 5-year plans sound important and cool. But how many times do you really follow them to the ‘T’? Especially when you are building a product. It is never possible to guess what the end-user really wants. So why not work in short bursts, validate the idea and then work on another one?
The further away you are from something, the fuzzier it becomes. The future is a major abstraction, riddled with a million vibrating variables you can’t control. The best information you’ll ever have about a decision is at the moment of execution.
5. Work doesn’t happen at work
Some people might find this a little controversial. But I agree with most of it. With open-floor offices these days and an open-door policy, it is very easy to get distracted at work. Offices have become distraction factories. I had explored this concept in other books like ‘Quiet’ and ‘Deep Work’ too and realized that open floor plans are not the best ideas for offices after all.
People aren’t working longer and later because there’s more work to do all of a sudden. People are working longer and later because they can’t get work done at work anymore!
6. The New Normal
Normal comes on quick. First, it starts as an outlier. Some behavior you don’t love, but tolerate. Then someone else follows suit, but either you miss it or you let it slide. Then people pile on—repeating what they’ve seen because no one stepped in to course-correct. There, you have just created your new normal.
Culture is what culture does. Culture isn’t what you intend it to be. It’s not what you hope or aspire for it to be. It’s what you do. So do better.
What I didn’t enjoy
- Contradicting Points – Some chapters were down-right contradicting the earlier ones. For example, in one of the chapters they mention that at Basecamp they discourage in person meetings and prefer asynchronous work. But in chapters later, they mention that chat-applications are a curse (well, not in exactly these words). The points are conflicting but they don’t seem to offer a way out.
- Arrogance – There is a kind of arrogance that you find in the writing style at times which diminishes other styles or ways of working.
- Not enough evidence to back the claims – Most of the chapters are only 2/3 pages long. So they start with ideas that are intriguing and you think this makes sense, but there is no evidence or data to back those claims. I know it is difficult to quanitfy ideas, but I am not just looking for numbers but anything that says this method is better than the other method because …
Verdict
I agree with the premise of ‘It Doesn’t Have To Be Crazy At Work’. A lot of it anyway. I am also very curious to find out how Basecamp really functions as a company and how does it feel to be working there. I did find new ideas and new perspectives to old ideas in the book. I think it is a good read. And since the book isn’t too long, it is perfect for reading between 2 activities – whenever you have 10-15 mins to spare, read a chapter or two.
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