All web apps are trying to suck. They are trying to be bloated. They are trying to be unstructured. They are trying to be confusing.
You are the stopgap. You are the one who stands between order and chaos. You are the sniper who must pick off every distraction, unneeded feature, and extra word that doesn’t absolutely have to be there.
You must be a killer. You must say no. You must anger those who disagree with you. That is the only way to make something great.
It’s not just software that’s this way. It’s true for anything you make. This American Life’s Ira Glass talks about it in this interview (below). He says that to succeed as a storyteller, or in any creative endeavor, you’ve got to enjoy killing (the part about killing starts around 1:30 in).
This idea that entropy is the enemy when you’re building something really makes sense: The universe is fighting against you. It’s trying to make whatever you’re creating chaotic and disordered. Everything will decline and degenerate unless you stop it from happening.
Greatness come from being a ruthless killer. Without vicious editing, your creation is destined to wind up the same as all the other crap that’s already out there.
Related
Eureka: We’re editors [SvN]
Storytelling and Business [Kevin Brooks]
Ryan Weaver
on 27 Mar 08Amen! Great reference to my favorite guy on NPR. I think it’s important, at the very least, to be reminded that being ruthless is the key to quality. Most people don’t aim for quality, so it’s easy to slip back into thinking that wishy-washy effort is acceptable.
Right on Matt
Glenn
on 27 Mar 08“The universe is fighting against you.”—Great quote with the idea that the universe is continually expanding!
Tim
on 27 Mar 08Are these the same snipers that Hillary faced in Bosnia?
Anonymous Coward
on 27 Mar 08TAL is great. Also checkout radio labs for more greatness.
StevenRay
on 27 Mar 08Wow, Thanks Matt this is awesome. Talk about hitting the nail on the head… It can become so easy when working with groups of people to just go along with the majority even if you don’t completely agree, but he’s right, you don’t strive to be mediocre.
rafi
on 27 Mar 08Great stuff. Reminds me of a post I wrote a few months ago on the importance of ruthless editing for video and poetry…. Two things I’m involved with when I’m not programming.
Raza Imam
on 27 Mar 08I love it… sometimes you gotta be a jerk to make an impact.
Raza Imam http://SoftwareSweatshop.com
Chris Jones
on 27 Mar 08That was a really great talk. I love how excited he got about the concept of killing idea’s that don’t work, no bones about it if it sucks kill it.
Nathaniel
on 27 Mar 08Sniper analogy = awesome.
Frank
on 27 Mar 08Reminds me of an anecdote from the Wooster Group, the NYC perofrmance collective. Don’t know where I heard this, but apparently they have a process when they’re working together on a piece, whereby, near the end of rehearsals, they all get together around a table with the copy of the latest draft of the script.
Then they all go around and say what their favorite part of the script is, and everyone’s favorite part gets killed. Harsh!
The idea is that you get too attached to your favorite part, and you can’t see it objectively enough to know whether it’s crap. So it becomes too precious, and the audience probably won’t get it.
Paul Smith
on 27 Mar 08I really don’t think this is always true. Maybe for storytelling, but there are many books that are long as hell, and are still very enjoyable. The same also goes for software. I probably use 5% of what Photoshop actually does, but someone else might use a completely different 5% of PhotoShop. It really depends on what the tool is. To say you MUST kill to have success is ridiculous. I know that’s what your company did to become successful, but it is definitely not the only way.
George
on 27 Mar 08It appears that parts 1, 3 and 4 of that series are also absolutely brilliant in their own ways. Thanks for the link.
jay
on 27 Mar 08While I understand the idea about cutting out the crap, I think the “killing” references are going way over the top.
@George – Is it 37signals’ philosophy that “Greatness come from being a ruthless killer” or does it come from being a ruthless editor? The difference is huge.
George
on 27 Mar 08I’m not sure I understand your question. You seem to have asked me two questions, by asking me about 37S’ philosophy and about a difference between “killer” and “editor”.
The value I got from these videos wasn’t related to webapps, but rather as someone bouncing around story ideas in their professional work at the moment. From that perspective, killer is as important as editor: I can polish good ideas, but however well I do that, most of them will only ever be good ideas. Few will make it to great ideas, so I have to know when to kill the idea, and know to have the confidence to do that, and then move on to a new idea. Or at least that’s what I took from that video.
The third one, about struggling to make stuff that lives up to my own personal standards, was especially poignant at this stage in my professional career and will probably be in my head for the next few years.
Ben
on 27 Mar 08Interesting how the idea of entropy goes against the idea of evolution. One goes to chaos, the other goes to order.
One of them must be wrong.
GeeIWonder
on 27 Mar 08@Ben
Entropy is increasing. Even when you build something, even when ordered structures are emerging (Evolution, when you build something, whatever).
As you build a coffee cup, you’re ordering the structure and, say, crystallizing it. But you’re expending energy to do so, and most of it is moving towards unordered energy (heat). Within the frame of reference of the cup structure, entropy is decreasing. Within the frame of reference of the universe, entropy has increased.
That’s basically the concept that’s being (aptly) bastardized here.
GeeIWonder
on 27 Mar 08Also, assuming evolution goes to order is a fallacy.
Pablo
on 27 Mar 08Did you ever thought that your readers can’t always make that call? sometimes we just have to add a feature because our leader or boss tell us to. It would be cool to develop whatever we want, but sometimes you have to do what the client wants, and there’s no option.
NewWorldOrder
on 28 Mar 08Great Video. Great Post. Bravo!
some guy
on 28 Mar 08let’s be clear about what we’re talking about here.
rejecting subpar results and insisting on excellence has to be done in the right spirit and with the right intentions.
it has to be done in the quest for excellence. it is not an excuse to shit on everything that gets done, which is why what we’re really talking about is first getting great people and then getting them to do the best work they possibly can.
you try to pull this steve jobs perfectionist stuff in a typical office environment and people will use rejection as a proxy to further their retarded political battles that existed prior to the start of a given project.
you try to do this with a team full of great people and you can produce things like the macintosh.
GeeIWonder
on 28 Mar 08someguy
No offense—but what the frig are you talking about? This malarkey reeks of self-fulfilling prophecy.
GeeIWonder
on 28 Mar 08I reject some subpar performace in the pursuit of mediocrity!
jay
on 28 Mar 08@George
It is the rather tasteless use of the words kill/ killer that I am questioning.
Fyi an editor does not necessarily just “polish”, they can edit things out completely. Which is probably just as good a metaphor.
Qubee
on 28 Mar 08So, how do you educate your pointy haired boss about these principles? Swear to god, the following landed in my inbox this morning:
We want to create a website in the next 30 days for a new project. Please review the following websites to get a sense of what I want. [1] Facebook.com: review and implement their Sign on/Registration Design, their User Profile design, and their Social Network design and functionality [2] Craig’s List: review this site to understand how our Classified Ad section should work [3] YouTube: review this site to understand how our Video Library should work [4] Apple.com and Barackobama.com: match their look and feel. I am particularly interested in a site with a high-contrast black background, similar to what apple has done and what obama has done in blue.Where do you even start?
???
This discussion is closed.