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Video Series of Jason Fried, founder of 37 Signals
11-16-2011, 01:29 PM
When people ask me why I work from home and I tell them its so I can get things done, they dont seem to understand.
I would say once or twice a week I will go to the studio and work side by side with others, and I always leave with the feeling that I cant wait to get home so I can apply what we just talked about doing.
I like how he mentions that things like twitter are modern smoke breaks. This is a good way to put it, and something that I can remind myself so I dont get frustrated with my lack of focus.
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Video Series of Jason Fried, founder of 37 Signals
11-16-2011, 08:03 PM
The virtual business has arrived.
I like a lot of things about his philosophy on how to operate businesses, especially the mobile/global part, but not all businesses can be run the way his is. He addresses that issue, though.
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Video Series of Jason Fried, founder of 37 Signals
11-16-2011, 09:49 PM
He's always got good ideas. Relevant to me as I'm trying to decide if I should expand my service business by outsourcing to higher paid remote western workers or physically go to Asia and open an office to save on labor costs (and bang Asians).
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Video Series of Jason Fried, founder of 37 Signals
11-16-2011, 10:16 PM
Rah, I would suggest that you shouldn't go with a one-size-fits all solution and make decisions on an as-needed basis.
I hired someone who I thought would be competent to make independent decisions for what seemed like a good price. It turns out that you do, in fact, get what you pay for. I've lost 2 months of time, work, money, and productivity on empty promises, lies, and incompetence. This is my fault, not his fault - ultimately, I was the one who delegated the job to him, so any poor results are my responsibility.
Having said that, for any menial, repetitive, brainless task that a monkey would be able to do with some training, I suggest you outsource to third world countries. Do not expect superior results or independent decision-making capability from them.
That is not to say that they can't do it. You should just not expect it.
I suggest you read "Source Control" by David Walsh.
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November, "Rework" is a fantastic book and great value-add to the forum. A lot of people have been asking me what business books I would suggest. Actually, there are not many. Also, I love the Gorillaz. "Stylo" is probably my favorite song.
I consider "Work the System" and "Millionaire Fastlane" to be required reading. Everything else I have read has either been too high-level birds-eye view material for corporate managers or just not very great reading.
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Video Series of Jason Fried, founder of 37 Signals
11-16-2011, 11:52 PM
"You get what you pay for" has been true all the time, based on my experience.
I've been outsourcing my powerpoint development to an American guy who provides somewhere between Filipino and American prices - probably because he is young and he might actually be living in foreign destinations, since he is never working on the American timezone.
I think this is an ideal situation - to find Americans/Canadian/Brits/Aussies who are freelancing from cheap spots and will deliver quality stuff for less cost.
This guy made my slides and even built me a logo for free, without asking me - and it turned out to be better than anything I ever could have done or thought of myself.
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Video Series of Jason Fried, founder of 37 Signals
11-19-2011, 07:25 PM
YMG where did you find your guy? The one who made your logo and slides. I am at the point where I realize that with the Rework business model your employees dont even have to be in the same country as you, however I can imagine finding the most qualified person for the job would be extremely difficult if you dont go local.
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Video Series of Jason Fried, founder of 37 Signals
11-20-2011, 08:42 PM
bface, are you a ruby programmer?
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Video Series of Jason Fried, founder of 37 Signals
11-20-2011, 09:31 PM
PHP at the moment, but I want to switch asap.