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Jason Fried

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Why new when? When we make something new, people often ask "why don't you just add that to Basecamp?" There are a...
8th May 2025
42

Why new when?

from Jason Fried [alt+shift+b] in life

8th May 2025
When we make something new, people often ask "why don't you just add that to Basecamp?" There are a number of reasons, depending on what it is. But, broadly, making something brand new gives you latitude (and attitude) to explore new tech and design approaches. It's the...
Doing what you think, not what you thought Whenever I talk about working in real-time, making decisions as you go, figuring things out now...
8th Apr 2025
62

Doing what you think, not what you thought

from Jason Fried [alt+shift+b] in life

8th Apr 2025
Whenever I talk about working in real-time, making decisions as you go, figuring things out now rather than before, I get a question like this... "If you don't have a backlog, or deep sets of prioritized, ranked items, how do you decide what to do next?" My answer:  The same...
Randomly right One of the great lessons of nature: Randomness is the most beautiful thing. Every forest, every...
12th Mar 2025
54

Randomly right

from Jason Fried [alt+shift+b] in life

12th Mar 2025
One of the great lessons of nature: Randomness is the most beautiful thing. Every forest, every field, every place untouched by humans is full of randomness. Nothing lines up, a million different shapes, sprouting seeds burst where the winds — or birds — randomly drop...
We increased conversion ~30% and we don't know exactly how Not too long ago, we dedicated a 6-week cycle to improving Basecamp's onboarding flows. The aim was...
3rd Feb 2025
38

We increased conversion ~30% and we don't know exactly how

from Jason Fried [alt+shift+b] in life

3rd Feb 2025
Not too long ago, we dedicated a 6-week cycle to improving Basecamp's onboarding flows. The aim was to increase conversion from trial to paid by smoothing out the initial experience of getting going, doing a better job of quick-teaching the basics, and making a few things a...
Subjectivity in productivity Precision. Certainty. Specificity. Everyone wants to know exactly what and exactly when, and they...
23rd Jan 2025
30

Subjectivity in productivity

from Jason Fried [alt+shift+b] in life

23rd Jan 2025
Precision. Certainty. Specificity. Everyone wants to know exactly what and exactly when, and they want a statistic attached to corroborate it. But numbers are rarely answers — just as projects are rarely math problems. Where are we in this process exactly? How far along in this...
Making it happen vs. Letting it happen Make it happen! You hear it a lot. And it's generally good advice, of course. At least the 'happen'...
14th Nov 2024
29

Making it happen vs. Letting it happen

from Jason Fried [alt+shift+b] in life

14th Nov 2024
Make it happen! You hear it a lot. And it's generally good advice, of course. At least the 'happen' part. You definitely want things to happen. But often times, it's the 'make' part that gets confused for progress. You can push a ball uphill, but should you? Not only does it take...
Appetites instead of estimates The problem with software estimates is that they're both entirely right and entirely wrong. Yes...
4th Oct 2024
24

Appetites instead of estimates

from Jason Fried [alt+shift+b] in life

4th Oct 2024
The problem with software estimates is that they're both entirely right and entirely wrong. Yes there's a 3 week version of something. And a 6 week version. And a 4 month version. And a 12 month version. That's correct. Yet, you'll almost always be wrong whichever you pick....
Questions and Answers vs. Features and Benefits When making products, you can think of them as a collection of features or answers. Some people may...
12th Sep 2024
26

Questions and Answers vs. Features and Benefits

from Jason Fried [alt+shift+b] in life

12th Sep 2024
When making products, you can think of them as a collection of features or answers. Some people may say "you mean features or benefits?" No, I mean answers. Answers are counterpoints to questions people have in their heads. Answers fill holes, answers snap into sockets. Benefits...
A company is a language Companies are akin to complex languages, each with its own unique dialect and cultural...
26th Aug 2024
23

A company is a language

from Jason Fried [alt+shift+b] in life

26th Aug 2024
Companies are akin to complex languages, each with its own unique dialect and cultural nuances. And I think this explains why it’s so hard for executives — especially executives — to come in from outside an organization and find their way. At lower levels within an...
Introducing Writebook You know, it's really easy to publish short form content on a variety of social platforms. And...
3rd Jul 2024
32

Introducing Writebook

from Jason Fried [alt+shift+b] in life

3rd Jul 2024
You know, it's really easy to publish short form content on a variety of social platforms. And individual blog posts on a number of other platforms. These are solved problems. But it's surprisingly challenging to publish books on the web in nice, cohesive, tight, easy-to-navigate...
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