Is there anything our society exalts more than The Winner? That fiery someone who crushes all competition to stand alone and victorious at the end. A genetic predisposition, I’m sure.
The paradigm of competition is so ingrained as the basic business narrative that we usually don’t even recognize it, much less question it. Well, of course there are winners and losers! What are you, a fucking communist?!
Actually, no. I’m a capitalist who doesn’t like direct competition. Is that an oxymoron? It shouldn’t be. In fact, it’s the profitable, justified motivation I smiled to see affirmed by Blue Ocean Strategy, the business book that explains this non-combative style with case studies like Cirque du Soleil.
I think that’s why I never really liked individual sports or games either. I remember how hard my heart would race playing 1-1 Quake, and how infinitely more shitty it felt losing than winning, and that even the latter wasn’t all that interesting!
Competition is the direct cultivation of stress and paranoia. Tapping fight-or-flight for game and gold. No thank you. Not for me, no siree!
The only competition I’ve come to love is the one against myself, and that’s not really a competition, now is it? The progress of betterment. Playing your part to the best of your abilities in a beautiful whole.
That’s the joy I take away from racing cars for endurance. It’s not so much being faster than the other cars, but striving to perfect your own contribution as part of a team. Pushing against the limits of perfect execution over the long term. 24 hours of testing your capability to avoid mistake and fatigue. Winning is almost incidental to that.
The same goes for making Basecamp the best software and the best company it can be. It’s not about taking out or choking existing or upcoming competition. It’s not about dominating a space to the exclusion of all others. I’m not sipping sour grapes or feeling bad when a competitor hits its stride. In fact, it’s so much more interesting when Basecamp is just one of many, different choices for people to make progress together.
The world is better off when its not being held in the palm of a few dominating winners.
Josh
on 12 Nov 15Thank you so much for writing this. I’ve always struggled with the same feelings you mention about winning and losing, as well as the mounting stress in those times. Screw that!
As someone who has considered starting my own business, it’s refreshing to see that it’s ok to not be focused on crushing the competition.
Thanks again.
Kevin
on 12 Nov 15The token one-off use of the f-bomb in these posts is disappointing on many levels. To me it is akin to pointless one or two token uses of the f-bomb in PG-13 movies. Vulgarity doesn’t automatically equate to any special insight into any topic. No, to me, the all-to-predictable use of the f-bomb by the gang at 37Signals adds a level of unprofessionalness to a seemingly decent organization. Worth a look
Ben
on 12 Nov 15@Kevin, it’s a word. And in this context, not a harmful word. Just a word that most people, in most English speaking parts of the world, use several times a day with absolutely no harmful consequences.
The entire premise of the article you linked to seems to be that cutting out the “f-bomb” when discussing work helps us maintain “business etiquette”, which in turn makes people trust us. But then by censoring our own communication, we’re essentially pretending to be some bland person that we’re not.
And who the fuck would trust a pretender? :)
I might also add that a group of grown men being offended by a quote from a TV show is ridiculous. Seriously, just grow_up.
Eric
on 12 Nov 15@Ben, I’m sure Kevin is also very upset with starbucks holiday cups. First world problems.
Love the reference to blue ocean strategy, I think it’s worth mentioning what that’s all about from a development perspective and how you might focus to create new value that opens new markets rather than just incremental level up of existing features/capabilities/price reductions which has a competitive focus.
big fan of the insights on this blog, thanks for sharing and keep em coming!
Andre
on 13 Nov 15Anyone who uses “f-bomb” instead of “fuck” needs to grow the f-bomb up.
Ron
on 13 Nov 15Kevin, well said.
Ben, agree to disagree. Tolerance is not all having the same ideas, but allowing people to hold views different to your own. Just because you think a word is “harmless” because it’s in vogue, doesn’t mean that the rest don’t think it’s poor form and coarse regardless.
It’s not about the words anyway, but the ideas. You don’t need “special words” to convey meaning.
Kevin
on 13 Nov 15As I sip my grande dark roast this morning, I can assuredly write that I too am a big fan 37s and the insights shared on their blog. Predictably, outstanding posts from these folks and I too hope they continue to share their expertise with all of us.
Sure, I remember the days during high school and college, when my buddies and I swore constantly. Looking back at the way I spoke then, it likely had more to do with being able to say things in a way that (I thought) made me sound “grown up”.
Perhaps this just a generational thing (or whatever), but to me both adulthood and professionalism mean not just saying what you want but saying what is needed, what is true. I’m not convinced that good content requires an occasional f-bomb.
Wherever you stand on this old debate, I’d wager that most of us wouldn’t even notice the absence of the token f-bombs.
Pedro
on 13 Nov 15@Kevin – what are you… a fucking conservative? Just kiddin’ ;)
I recommend an immediate diet of a Louis CK (search “Louis CK N-word” on YT), supplemented with Steven Pinker’s talk entitled “The Language of swearing” (also on YT). Enjoy man!
P.S. By using the term “f-bomb”, you just made me think of “fuck”. Shame on you for not owning “fuck” in the first place.
Anthony
on 13 Nov 15I second Kevin’s comments. This kind of language reduces the chances I’ll read SvN in the future.
Randal
on 14 Nov 15Behind this article is a fear that others might have a significantly better execution of the same approach you hold so dearly. It’s a form of cop-out. It’s a wussified manifestation of your fear.
You say you are just one of many choices, yet you insist that your philosophy is the “best way” and hope many others would agree. This logic nullifies the assertion in this article. By having an opinion and publicly asserting it is “the way”, you are picking a fight, and it is a form of competition against conflicting ideas. You are competing against others, not against yourself, no matter what you think about it, or you wouldn’t even be writing this.
Besides, what are you trying to prove by saying derogatory words? Is being juvenile and immature a part of Getting Real?
Randal
on 14 Nov 15P.S.
It’s funny to see how the majority of comments so far are about the derogatory term in the article. It shows how the article utterly failed to retain readers’ focus on the main point. A huge irony from a guy who seems to advocate strong focus on essentials.
This is what happens when someone has no concept of being humble.
Josh
on 14 Nov 15The inclusion of “best-selling author” in the bio you’ve chosen for yourself as the signature for your posts surely belies the this theory, no? It appears that there are some forms of winning that you do appreciate.
Winning is the ultimate measure of the combined efforts in the given pursuit. As a fellow race driver I fully appreciate the satisfaction of a well prepared and executed race, but I don’t think that there is any denying that your place on the time sheets validates that effort. Otherwise you would just be doing track days.
Striving for and being proud of a win doesn’t have to mean wishing the worst for the others who have chosen to line up next to you in the given game. It sounds to me that you are really saying that you appreciate team competition over individual, you like a good spirit of competition over the pursuit of absolute domination, and you don’t see everything as being a competition. You may not be a ruthless asshole out to crush everyone you meet in every field of endeavor, but I think that you do want to be the winner in certain competitions that matter to you.
The world as a whole may not be better off being held in the hand of a few dominating winners, but isn’t that a much bigger concept than the rest of your post speaks to? You, individually, and the arenas you choose to compete in are surely better off for the competition and drive to succeed – as measured by your relative results. I.e. winning.
Graham Freeman
on 15 Nov 15On a related note, Margaret Heffernan gave a great 15min TED talk on the practical impacts of competition vs. collaboration in organizational culture:
https://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_heffernan_why_it_s_time_to_forget_the_pecking_order_at_work
In sum, collaboration objectively and decisively wins.
I have some quibbles with DHH’s post. Perhaps first and foremost, he hasn’t acknowledged his privileged position – he has achieved (indeed, earned) a level of success that affords him the luxury of not competing on a day-to-day basis. If his Basecamp loses a few customers to Trello, or if another business book does better, it makes no practical difference in DHH’s life. In contrast, when I recently lost out on a client bid to another (competing) small managed IT services provider, that was a meaningful loss – it means getting out of a rental and into homeownership remains that much further out of reach.
That said, I’m sold on the merits of collaboration rather than competition. Far too many people in the “professional” world view competition as an end, not just a means. The founder of Oracle famously doesn’t enjoy a victory unless the person he views as his competitor has actually lost something. His world is apparently very much zero-sum – how depressing! These hyper-competitive people live fundamentally unhappy lives and – worse yet – make the rest of us less happy in the process. Fuck that.
Personally, I’ll compete when necessary, to the extent necessary. But it’s a sometimes-necessarily means to an end – not a goal in its own right. Collaboration is a lot more enjoyable, and a lot more rewarding.
DHH
on 16 Nov 15Funny that this post is the one that brings the anti-swear brigade out of the woodwork. It had a sole “fucking” in there, and that was a TV quote, no less (The Wire, S3E7). If you want more swearing, I recently posted a talk called RECONSIDER. That had two fucking’s, originals too – not quotes, and it had three shit’s.
If swearing blows you gasket to the point that it’s the only thing you can focus on, well, then that’s self-selection in process. Feel free to peruse the many other blogs around the world that never contains the occasional swear word or euphemize them as “f-bombs” or “f*cks”.
David Andersen
on 16 Nov 15Thanks for the book recommendation! Definitely up my alley!
Ron
on 17 Nov 15“If swearing blows you gasket to the point that it’s the only thing you can focus on”
I don’t think the comments were about that.
Simply, that you could be writing better. That’s all.
Feedback to use or lose.
Anthony
on 17 Nov 15“If swearing blows you gasket to the point that it’s the only thing you can focus on, well, then that’s self-selection in process.”
Just made the writing seem lower-quality than it otherwise would have been, and detract from what should have been the main point. That kind of writing style (gratuitous swearing) seems immature to me, and I don’t like to spend my time listening to people who swear without a good reason.
Kevin
on 17 Nov 15@DHH, the main topic of your post (as usual) is solid. Your insight in to such topics is most useful and I am indeed a fan.
My only point was to bring attention to the seemingly superfluous sprinkling of curse word in such posts. Feel free to marginalize my comments, I can take the feedback, can you?
By the way, a brigade is a “major tactical military formation” typically composed of approximately 1,500 to 4,000 soldiers with supporting elements. Seems like a good amount of people to alienate.
Michael
on 17 Nov 15Randal, all the people focusing on the swears are deliberately choosing to be distracted from the main point.
Scott D.
on 17 Nov 15DHH’s point is actually not so much about whether winning in itself is good or bad. Rather, it is about focus and staying true to what you are about. Worrying about competing with others distract you from what truly matters and cloud your judgment. Your desire to be a “winner” often results in feature bloat, unnecessary growth and overall unhappiness, none of which would help creating a truly useful product.
And winning by what measure? How do you know such winning is even meaningful in the first place?
Brandon
on 18 Nov 15From Anthony above ”..I don’t like to spend my time listening to people who swear without a good reason.”
Define “good reason”. Swearing has always been a “taboo” but it’s grown common. If every other word is not the f-word, then when somebody drops it, I always assume that there is passion/anger or emotion of some sort about what they are currently communicating. It’s purpose is to let you know, “I’m so concerned about this, I’m willing to break some social norms to convey it to you.”
Anthony
on 18 Nov 15@Brandon,
David here is using it as an ironic joke, which to me doesn’t reach the level of a good reason.
This discussion is closed.