#54 Jason Fried: Doing the Enough Thing
Jason Fried, co-founder and CEO of Basecamp, shares his philosophy on running a profitable business, focusing on employee well-being, and challenging conventional work norms. He discusses prioritizing intrinsic motivation, fostering a calm work environment, and raising children with curiosity and self-awareness.
Deep Dive Analysis
14 Topic Outline
Parental Influence and Doing the Right Thing
Basecamp's 'Enough' Philosophy and Work-Life Balance
Internal Operations: Six-Week Cycles and Autonomous Teams
Holistic Project Evaluation Beyond Metrics
Intuition, Feel, and Human-Centric Management
Lessons from Running a Bootstrapped Business
Rejecting Growth Targets and External Pressures
Personal Philosophy: Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Expectations
Learning and Information Consumption Habits
Parenting Philosophy: Child-Led Learning and Curiosity
Workforce Skills: Communication and Intrinsic Drive
Purpose Behind Writing Books
Critique of Modern Work Culture and 'Calm Company' Approach
The Expectation of Eventual Response
5 Key Concepts
The Enough Philosophy
Basecamp's approach where work is considered 'enough' if output is achieved efficiently, often in shorter hours, rejecting the cultural pressure for constant overwork. It prioritizes focused work over long hours, recognizing that extended hours often result from fragmented time rather than increased workload.
Holistic Project Evaluation
Basecamp assesses project success not just by customer-facing metrics, but also by internal morale, team relationships, and whether the project strengthened or weakened the company and its people. This approach considers the human impact of work alongside the product outcome.
Calm Company
A business model that actively pushes back against the prevailing trends of overwork, hustle culture, and constant availability, prioritizing focused work, reasonable hours, and employee well-being. It aims to create an environment where people can do their best work without burnout or unnecessary stress.
Eventual Response
A communication expectation at Basecamp where quick replies are not mandated. Instead, individuals are expected to respond when they are ready, allowing them to prioritize deep work without constant interruption and encouraging self-reliance.
Intrinsic Motivation in Work
The idea that satisfaction and high-quality work come from an internal drive to do a good job and be intellectually challenged, rather than from external targets, numbers, or goals. This fosters a sense of purpose and craftsmanship in daily tasks.
6 Questions Answered
Basecamp uses six-week cycles for product development, assigning projects to small, autonomous teams of two to three people. Projects are 90% figured out before being handed off, and teams are responsible for completing the work without constant check-ins.
Success is judged holistically by how the team feels about the project's outcome and the process, including morale and relationships, rather than solely by quantitative customer-facing metrics.
He believes in focusing internally, being profitable to ensure longevity, and not being influenced by competitors or external growth pressures, as he only needs 'some customers' rather than 'all customers'.
Setting external goals often leads to disappointment or a never-ending cycle of new targets, potentially pushing a company to act against its values. He believes intrinsic motivation is more effective for doing one's best work.
Basecamp promotes an 'eventual response' culture, meaning there's no expectation for immediate replies. This allows employees to focus on their work without constant interruption and encourages self-reliance.
Jason Fried observes a significant lack of strong writing and communication skills, particularly the ability to explain, persuade, and get to the point effectively, as academic writing differs from real-world communication.
56 Actionable Insights
1. Identify the Right Action
Make it a habit to always determine what the “right thing to do” is in any situation, even if you don’t always execute it, as this awareness is crucial.
2. Act on the Right Thing
Strive to do the right thing, even when it is inconvenient, as demonstrated by the speaker’s parents.
3. Cultivate Self-Awareness & Curiosity
Prioritize developing self-awareness, understanding your motivations, and pursuing deep learning in areas of genuine interest as a lifelong lesson.
4. Question Goal-Based Disappointment
When evaluating personal efforts, question disappointment stemming from not hitting a specific number or goal, and instead focus on the intrinsic positive experiences and benefits gained.
5. Motivate Intrinsically, Not by Targets
Strive to do your best work every day driven by intrinsic motivation, rather than relying on external targets or goals which can feel artificial.
6. Avoid Self-Imposed Disappointment
Take a step back to appreciate what you have achieved and avoid self-imposed disappointment by setting overly difficult or unrealistic targets.
7. Prioritize Daily Well-being
Regularly check in with how you feel on a day-to-day basis as a primary measure of your overall satisfaction and direction.
8. Define Intrinsic Success
Define personal and career success intrinsically (e.g., making a good product, working with great people, intellectual challenge), rather than through external validation like media presence or world-changing ambitions.
9. Understand Your Leadership ‘Why’
Before leading someone in a certain direction, take time to understand and articulate the underlying reasons for that choice, ensuring it’s well thought out.
10. Value Output, Not Hours
Create an environment where performance is judged by output and work completion, rather than by who appears to be working the hardest or longest hours.
11. Embrace “Enough” Work
Recognize that if work is completed efficiently, five hours a day can be “enough,” challenging the cultural pressure to work excessively long hours.
12. Prioritize Contiguous Work Time
Understand that long work hours often stem from a lack of uninterrupted, contiguous time for deep work, rather than an excessive workload.
13. Grant Full Autonomy Over Day
Design an environment where employees have full autonomy over their workday, allowing them to manage their time as they see fit to maximize productivity and personal well-being.
14. Consider Human Impact
When evaluating success, always consider the human impact and how employees felt about the process, not just customer satisfaction or external metrics.
15. Enable Best Employee Work
As a leader, prioritize creating an environment where employees feel empowered and supported to do the best work of their careers.
16. Reject External Growth Pressure
Avoid external investment that brings enormous growth expectations, instead focusing on manageable internal expectations like developing a good product and caring for customers and employees.
17. Prioritize Profitability
Focus on maintaining profitability (making more money than you spend) as the fundamental measure of business success and longevity.
18. Profit for Longevity
Prioritize profitability as the best strategy to ensure business longevity and “stick around” in the market.
19. Avoid Self-Inflicted Business Failure
To ensure business survival, actively avoid common self-destructive behaviors such as resistance to change, ignoring customers, cockiness, or greed.
20. Challenge Conventional Wisdom
Do not automatically adopt methods just because others in your industry are doing them; question conventional wisdom and forge your own path.
21. Limit Industry Trend Focus
Intentionally limit attention to industry trends, competitors, and their products to maintain mental freedom and foster original thought, avoiding being “colored by what everyone else is doing.”
22. Seek Broad Inspiration
Look for inspiration broadly outside of your immediate industry, such as in architecture, art, nature, or long walks, to foster creativity and unique perspectives.
23. Master Clear Communication
Focus on developing strong writing and communication skills, including getting to the point and making a clear case, as these are often lacking in new graduates and crucial for success.
24. Prioritize Writing in Hiring
When hiring, prioritize evaluating a candidate’s writing ability as a primary indicator of their communication skills.
25. Seek Genuine Curiosity
In hiring and personal development, look for genuine curiosity and a passion for the work, rather than just being trained in a skill.
26. Develop Self-Critique
Cultivate introspection and the ability to self-critique your own work, as this demonstrates valuable self-awareness and a drive for improvement.
27. Hire Passionate Self-Starters
Seek to hire individuals who are not only capable and do great work, but also genuinely enjoy and would pursue their craft even outside of work.
28. Share Your Knowledge
If you have valuable insights or a unique approach, share them openly rather than keeping them proprietary, as this can build community and indirect promotion.
29. Don’t Fear Sharing “Secrets”
Adopt a mindset similar to chefs sharing recipes: don’t fear that sharing your methods will put you out of business, as true value lies beyond mere information.
30. Use Content for Indirect Promotion
Create and share valuable content (like books) to disseminate your ideas and points of view, which can indirectly promote your company without direct advertising.
31. Implement Six-Week Cycles
Structure work into focused six-week cycles, allowing substantial progress on important tasks within a defined timeframe.
32. Define “Enough” for Projects
Use a fixed, shorter timeframe (like six weeks) to force clarity on what is truly important for a project, preventing scope creep and ensuring substantial progress.
33. Beware Time Expansion
Be aware that work expands to fill the time allotted; shorter, fixed deadlines can increase efficiency and focus.
34. Find the “X-Week Version”
Challenge yourself to distill ideas into their most essential components to fit a shorter development cycle (e.g., a “six-week version”), ensuring focus on core value.
35. Grant Team Autonomy
Empower small teams (three people or less) with full autonomy to complete their work, allowing them to check in only when they deem it necessary.
36. Avoid Long-Term Roadmaps
Forego rigid, long-term roadmaps, instead focusing on what needs to be done in the immediate next cycle (e.g., eight weeks out), allowing for flexibility and responsiveness.
37. Pre-Bake Project Ideas
Ensure project ideas are 90% figured out before handing them to a team, so they can focus on execution rather than extensive conceptualization, maximizing their time for actual work.
38. Reject Numeric Goals
Do not rely on specific goals or metrics for success in product development, instead focusing on a holistic assessment of outcomes.
39. Assess Success by “Feel”
Evaluate project success based on a qualitative “feel” for how it turned out and whether it genuinely improved the product, rather than arbitrary quantitative metrics.
40. Holistic Project Assessment
When evaluating a project, consider not just the output, but also the internal process, team morale, personal relationships, and overall company strength.
41. Balance Project Difficulty
Intentionally assign simpler projects to individuals who have completed a series of challenging tasks, allowing them to decompress and prevent burnout.
42. Conduct Delayed Project Reviews
Perform project reviews a few months after completion to gain distance and a clearer perspective on what went right, what went wrong, and what could be improved.
43. Trust Intuition in Product
Prioritize “feel,” intuition, and gut instinct in product development decisions, rather than being solely data-driven, especially when it comes to human experience.
44. Request Time Directly
Eliminate shared calendars and require direct, personal requests for someone’s time, fostering negotiation and respect for time’s value.
45. Value Others’ Time
Treat others’ time as incredibly valuable, ensuring you have a good, well-considered reason before requesting it.
46. Limit Screen Real Estate
Use a single, smaller screen (e.g., a 13-inch laptop) to minimize distractions and encourage focused work, rather than multiple large monitors.
47. Focus on One Screen
Work with only one screen at a time to maintain focus and reduce the temptation for constant context switching.
48. Expect Eventual Response
Cultivate a culture of “eventual response” rather than immediate, understanding that delays mean someone is focused on more important work, and allowing people to respond when ready.
49. Design Independent Workflows
Design workflows so that tasks are not overly dependent on immediate responses from others, allowing individuals to continue working even while waiting for input.
50. Foster Self-Reliance
Embrace the “eventual response” model to encourage self-reliance and problem-solving, as it prompts individuals to figure things out themselves rather than waiting for others.
51. Utilize Audio for Learning
Incorporate audiobooks and podcasts into short, available time slots (e.g., car commutes) to continue learning and consuming content when traditional reading time is limited.
52. Consume Content at 1x Speed
Listen to audio content at 1x speed, questioning the rush to “pack everything in” and accepting that it’s okay not to get to everything, to avoid creating an unhealthy expectation of constant speed.
53. Observe Details in Experiences
In any experience, make an effort to observe and pay attention to the details of how things came together and why they are the way they are, fostering curiosity and learning.
54. Encourage Child-Led Learning
Adopt a child-led learning approach, allowing children to explore and pursue their own interests, as advocated by “The Self-Driven Child.”
55. Prioritize Play and Exploration
Emphasize the importance of play, exploration, and creativity for children’s development, rather than solely academic focus.
56. Avoid Unnecessary Pressure
Refrain from applying unnecessary pressure with “or else” scenarios (e.g., “you have to learn this or else you won’t succeed”), allowing for diverse paths to success.
5 Key Quotes
Always figure out what the right thing to do is in any given situation.
Jason Fried
If the working gets done in five hours a day, then that's, that's enough.
Jason Fried
Just because other people are doing it this way, it does not mean that that's how you should do it.
Jason Fried
One of the great ways to, to, to quote, win in business is to just to stick around.
Jason Fried
If you need a target to do your best work, it feels a bit artificial to me.
Jason Fried
1 Protocols
Basecamp Product Development Cycle
Jason Fried- Choose 3-5 projects for the next six-week cycle.
- Form product teams of 2-3 people.
- Ensure each project idea is 90% figured out before handing off to a team.
- Grant teams full autonomy and responsibility to complete the work within the six-week timeframe.
- Conduct post-project reviews a few months later to assess outcomes and process.