Jason Fried, 37signals

📚 Source

https://share.snipd.com/episode/e5da0a13-e878-4b99-aca3-ddfdd774acff

Who Should Read This

Anyone who:

• Who’s tired of startup hustle porn and “blitzscale or die” sermons.
• Wants a calm, profitable business instead of a VC-fueled bonfire.
• Believes “scratch your own itch” beats customer-survey theater.
• Flirting with remote work but still addicted to meetings.
• Likes simple, opinionated software and are allergic to corporate nonsense.

Influenced Mental Models

• Problem Proximity- Condition
• Build for Yourself - Guiding Principle
  • Start with a real problem you personally understand deeply.
  • Avoids Failure Mechanism: Trying to please everyone → vague product → bloated features → no clear audience.
• You are Not Your Customer - Guiding Principle
  • Don’t substitute your own preferences for evidence about users.
  • This failure mode seems to be what we’re trying to avoid
  • This is especially important when:
    • The builder is not the target user
    • The product is for a different domain
    • The builder is far from the real problem
  • Examples:
    • A manager designing tools for developers
    • A healthy person designing a medical product
    • A CEO designing frontline employee software
  • In those cases, you are definitely not the customer.
• Assumption Projection
• False Consensus Effect
• Customer Averaging
• Evidence Over Speculation

flowchart TD
PP[🎚️Problem Proximity]
B[🧭Build for Yourself]
Y[🧭You Are Not the Customer]
A[💥Assumption Projection]
FCE[💥False Consensus Effect]
CA[💥Customer Averaging]
E[Evidence Over Speculation]

PP -- (far) enables --> A
PP -- (near) enables --> FCE
B -- guards against --> CA
Y -- guards against --> A
Y -- guards against --> FCE
E -- balances --> B
E -- balances --> Y

Condition: 🎚️ Failure Mechanism: 💥 Friction:🐢 Guiding Principle: 🧭

Resonating Quotes

Quote

“Knowing what I know now, would I hire them again?”

—Jason Fried via Jason Fried, 37signals

I use this all the time!

Quote

All a great life is, is just a string of great days.”

—Jason Fried via Jason Fried, 37signals

This really resonated with me. While I’m focused on trying to make life better in five years, today is passing by. If you’re always focused on the future, you’re missing the present. If the present isn’t great, trying to make the future great while ignoring today is just asinine.

Quote

“If it could be better, it’s not done.”

—Jason Fried via Jason Fried, 37signals

The reverse of what is implied by this is what I found most insightful. Did you do the best you can do? Then let it go. I ruminate too much on how I could/should have made something better. I did the best I could at the time, that’s all I could have done, let’s move on.

Lines of Inquiry

• (URL) How can peeps find this online?
• Influenced Mental Models
• Resonating Quotes
• Ensure all linked mental models have applicable references to this resource.
• Does the concept of “scratch your own itch” fuel Inside-Out Product Development?
• The “would you X again” method to confirm a ongoing decision. This probably has some sort of proper name. I wonder what it is. Dave Ramsey uses logic like this a lot to help people answer questions about investing decisions.