I’d be happy if 37signals is the last place I work. In an industry so focused on the booms and busts, I find myself a kindred spirit with the firms of old. Places where people happily reported to work for 40 years, picking up a snazzy gold watch at the end as a token of life-long loyalty.
Committing myself to this long-term focus has led to a peaceful work atmosphere and an incredible clarity of purpose. If this is the last job I’ll ever have, I damn well better make sure that I like it. I won’t just tough things out. If shit is broken, we’ll fix it now, lest we be stuck with it for decades.
Two key ideas help inform this dedication. The first is Alistair Cockburn’s metaphor of software development as a co-operative game. Focusing on the residue of knowledge and practices carried over from game to game is far more important than worrying about the output of any one game.
Working people to death to ship any one feature or product is a poor strategy, as it reduces the capacity to ship the next feature or product (burn out, build-up of bad rush practices). It’s far more important to have a system for shipping that improves over the long term than one that heroically manages one monster push.
Second is Jeff Bezos’ idea: “What’s not going to change over the next 10 years?” If you’re going to stick around for decades, you’re better off making investments in things that’ll pay off for a very long time. It applies both to software and peopleware.
Of course, not everyone is at a stage in their life where they’re willing to settle down with a job for decades. But I find I enjoy working most with the people who are.
If you’re not committed to your life’s work in a company and with people you could endure for decades, are you making progress on it?
Yamil Gonzales
on 09 Jan 13I’m just curious about Rails, do you think this same principles apply to the development of Rails? I mean, is Rails one of those things that “will not change in the next 10 years”, or you just see it as a tool that may easily be replace in the future? Are the tools you use included?
DHH
on 09 Jan 13I doubt Rails will have the longevity of 37signals, but who knows. I’ll continue working on Rails as long as we continue to make web applications and no clearly better alternative arises.
If you would have asked me 10 years ago whether we’d still be using Rails today, I would probably have been skeptical. But here we are.
John
on 09 Jan 13I quit my job two months ago to strike out on my own-a lot of that decision influenced by you… Let me back up a bit-the decision to start my own business (on the side in a low-risk way), to shoot for the “Fortune 5M” instead of the next boom, forget about VC, focus on profits above all else—those decisions were influenced by your work and writing. Thanks for it.
I’m profitable and I make my own decisions on what to work on or whether to work at all. It’s so good that I worry all the time, which I think is standard for folks in my position. I read books about combatting the worry, and the consensus seems to be “stay busy.” From Ben Franklin to Dale Carnegie, this is what they say you should do, and it makes sense. I stay busy. I have to get off your blog and get back to work as a matter of fact.
This is something I’ve always wanted to do, and I’m glad I’m trying it. I know I won’t be an old man looking back on what could’ve been—that’s more important to me than the illusion of a steady paycheck.
Trevor
on 09 Jan 13First sentence of this post:
Dude, you’re CO-FOUNDER of 37signals.
As a paying customer, this better be your last place to work!
Thanks for giving me the confidence that you plan to stick-around 37signals … all along which you guys have a ton of my corporate data.
Just saying.
Danny
on 09 Jan 13You appear to be an exemplar of why I do what I do for my work. I just posted your perspective on my related news mash (www.junglelightnews.com), and yes, you’re one of many reasons I’m a smiling 37 Signals customer. Thank you for being there, and I thank 37signals for “being there” for you.
Ben Atkin
on 09 Jan 13I like how you treat being a partner the same way as being an employee in most contexts, by using the unifying word “work”. Small companies and startups often make a big deal over the difference between being a partner and being an employee. No wonder turnover is often high.
Also, Trevor, the term “Co-Founder” applied to a partner is a common misnomer which is becoming accepted usage. It still doesn’t feel right to me. Jason found some success with 37signals before he ever met David.
JZ
on 09 Jan 13Growing up I watched my parents get it from both ends working all their lives at jobs they hated. Before joining 37signals, I couldn’t imagine how anyone could work for one company their entire life. Now I know I’d feel very lucky if this was the last place I ever worked.
And I don’t think this sentiment is reserved for founders, co-founders, owners or even entrepreneurs. The practice of my craft is my life’s work. The impact of working for a company that nurtures the craftsman and provides the canvas on which he creates is immeasurable.
Den
on 09 Jan 13I’ll try to remember this if I join some place as a partner aka ‘share the actual profit’.
Taras
on 09 Jan 13I agree with David.
There has been too much focus on jumping from one job to another and always looking for the next best thing. You begin to care more about your “career” then about what you actually do. An advice given to new job entrants goes something like this: “When do you start looking for a new job? The minute you get hired in your current position.” We are bread from early on to never be satisfied with what you have and always look for something better. Although a worthwhile pursuit in some endeavours, we often tend to overlook the good in search for the new. And when we find the new, we tend to immediately discard the good if only because it is old.
When you stick around in the same job for a long time, you get to know what you do intimately. If your workplace is filled with people you get along with then it becomes a playground rather then job. You dedicate yourself to your work and as a result create or provide exceptional products or services.
However, this type of opportunity can only be afforded at places where loyalty and specialization is rewarded both in pay and how you are treated. 37signals, it seems, has become that type of workplace.
Keep up the good work David and good luck in the future.
Brad Fults
on 09 Jan 13I love the idea of creating or joining a workplace that is completely fulfilling. I think it takes a business in a specific market with a specific outlook from its leaders to create and sustain such a place.
I have heard that 37signals does not allow employees to pursue paying side projects while employed there, however. Is this true? And if so, I have a very difficult time reconciling that with indefinite employment there—what if I want to work on a self-sustaining or barely profitable web community on the side with my friends? I can’t imagine losing that privilege.
Daniel Wozniak
on 09 Jan 13It is important to highlight point about being happy and being in a place where you feel you could work for 10+ years. There is alot of chatter here about looking for “the next best thing”. Well, If you have not found a place that you feel add’s enough value to the world to make your lifes work worth it. You had better go look for “the next best thing” and keep looking until you find where you fit. You also alude to the fact that companies are as much to blame with the churn em’ and burn em’ mentality that so often arises in corporate management culture. I believe that this is the real crux of the issue. There are not enough companies out there for which you want to spend your life’s work on and which will actually give you that gold watch if you do so.
Just my .02$
Daniel Wozniak
Jason Fried
on 09 Jan 13I have heard that 37signals does not allow employees to pursue paying side projects while employed there, however. Is this true?
It’s true that we don’t allow moonlighting that involves the same kind of work you do at 37signals.
For example, if you’re a designer here, you can’t be a for-profit freelance designer on the side, too.
But if you want to sell paintings on the side, that’s fine. Or if you want to teach a night class on design, that’s fine. Or if you want to sell your cookies at the local farmer’s market, that’s fine.
Apel Mjausson
on 09 Jan 13I just love these ideas. It’s “slow living” applied to work. Sustainability and reflection are foregrounded instead of trying to make the hamster wheel go faster.
Jeremy
on 10 Jan 13Curious on the reasons for the moonlighting restriction. I can imagine arguments on either side, so what was the ultimate decider to go that route?
GeeIWonder
on 10 Jan 13So, what is your life’s work then? Because if it’s lasting a certain amount of time at a company like ‘the firms of old’ (speaking fondly of the past in abstract—there’s a new onee) or earning a gold watch, well then I can’t relate at all.
Ben
on 10 Jan 13David you may be interested in the Japanese documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi. A commitment to a life’s work.
Dave
on 10 Jan 13“I’d be happy if 37signals is the last place I work. [I]find myself a kindred spirit with the firms of old. Places where people happily reported to work for 40 years, picking up a snazzy gold watch at the end as a token of life-long loyalty…”
It’s a two way street. The “firms of old” are a dying breed. Loyalty, trust, and the long view have to be valued by both sides for it to be effective and not exploitative.
Too many firms, startups, and long established companies big and small do not value the things that would deserve having such a long view.
Welshdog
on 10 Jan 13David dreams of software….
Christiano Kwena
on 10 Jan 13I look at family, its something that I will have for the rest of my life, and I have to do the best with every situation that arises.
For work, the same can apply, you have a duty to attend to, whether you like it or not, and your duty is to do the best that is good for all, especially your customer and your staff or colleagues.
Dylan
on 10 Jan 13Hey David – lovely post and very inspiring. You are young though. While 37signals may end up being your life’s work, you have many decades ahead of you to change direction. Who knows what the future holds?
GregT
on 10 Jan 13Now I’m wondering, what is 37S’s position/philosophy on employee share ownership? I don’t think I ever read this in either book or the blog.
Spending your whole life at a company that you own seems noble, but otherwise, it seems kind of pathetic (notwithstanding, that seems to be what I am doing).
John McDowall
on 10 Jan 13While I love the sentiment in this post, and wish it could be true, it’s also an easy statement to make when you are The Boss. If you’re not The Boss, and you are in a place where The Bossess are completely incompetent, short-term focussed, madly-pivoting whirling dervishes, then it’s another reality, isn’t it?
Ben Dunlap
on 10 Jan 13But if you’re doing work you enjoy, are being compensated well for it, have room to grow personally and professionally, and get along reasonably well with the other people at the company, all of which appear to apply to the typical 37signals employee… where is the problem that needs fixing?
GeeIWonder
on 11 Jan 13Well, for starters, all the things you just mentioned look purely inwards. Which is fine, unless you 8 years old or more.
andyidsinga
on 11 Jan 13really love how you folks talk about long term work and being great place to work – reminds me a little of the valve new employee handbook ;) .
Re investing for the looooooong term: some companies are fascinating in this regard – for instance DuPont, founded 1802.
What will the software companies founded in our lifetimes be if they last >100 years ..probably something pretty amazing! cheers!
This discussion is closed.