Good news: REWORK is back on the NYT Hardcover Business Best Sellers list (#12 currently). Some of the reviews of the book from around the web offer up interesting tangents:

In “Books about very specific things that double as manuals for living a good life,” writer/filmmaker John Pavlus talks about REWORK and his other favorite “self-help book in disguise.”

True and False, by David Mamet: This is supposedly a book about how to become a good actor. Actual actors tend to think it’s full of shit, because Mamet doesn’t really care about process, or Method, or “acting” at all in the sense of “how to become better at pretending.” He cares about acting in the sense of “how to become better at doing.” Like, “man of action”-type acting – which, of course, translates just as well to real life as the stage. Putting up or shutting up. Taking action even when you’re scared or uncertain. Just doing it – not because of what “it symbolizes” or because you think you understand your “motivation” – because it needs doing. Like in an “or else I don’t eat today” kind of way. If you want straight talk on how to act – or, in other words, live – with purpose and integrity, Mamet’s your man.

(He also thinks grad school is for pussies, which is an entertaining point of view.)

Business law attorney Frederic R. Abramson discusses how the book applies to the practice of law for small firms.

If you think a competitor sucks, say so. If you are a solo, tell the world that you hate big law firms. It is a great way to differentiate yourself. Hell, I do. I especially hate them when I go to court. They have no clue how to draft a simple order. They love to make useless motions so that they can bill the fuck out of their clients. Sitting through a deposition with a newly minted big law associate is torture. “When you started your first company at the age of 12, was your mother working as a waitress or a podiatrist?”

Geoff Dutton wrote to tell us about a personal experience related to the essay in the book about apologizing.

I’m reading through REWORK right now and am really enjoying it. I especially loved the section on customer service, specifically addressing ‘apologizing’. I recently had an issue with DirecTV where I wasn’t notified that I still owed them money. The only reason I found out is because I checked my credit report and saw a collection item on it. After explaining the situation and how it is a hassle to have to deal with this six months after I cancelled my account (in the politest way possible mind you), I received multiple forms of this:

“I understand this has been a frustrating experience for you. We respect your time and I appreciate that you’ve given me the opportunity to personally address your concerns.”

Okay great, that doesn’t solve my problem though. Plus, the most ridiculous thing is they wanted me to write a letter and MAIL it to their collections department to find out more information. Just ridiculous.

Also, Unshelved offered up a comic strip look at the book — which is a good reminder that you can actually view all 88 illustrations from REWORK in a Flickr set.

Brett Miller’s review notes that the book gets right to the meat.

The design of the book is also a lesson in the unusual; about the only typical aspect are the inside flaps on the book jacket. For example, when I started reading the book, I immediately had a feeling that something wasn’t quite right. It was only when I finished the book and saw, on the last printed page, the copyright page that I realized the source of that feeling.

Fried and Hansson have pulled a George Lucas, dispensing with all the upfront crap that you usually have to get through to get to the good stuff. Two pages of praise, and then the Table of Contents. Not even a title page. Talk about getting right to the point!

This is something we actually pushed for with our publisher. We asked them why every book has to start with so much noise upfront. They weren’t sure. So we axed everything we could and got right to the good stuff.

Big thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to write about the book!

The Words episode of Radiolab (iTunes link) features an interesting segment on how Shakespeare behaved like a language chemist, combining words like elements. The relevant story starts at 22:00 in of the episode.

According to James Shapiro, a Shakespeare scholar at Columbia, the un- prefix is something Shakespeare created (at least he was the first to use it in print or on stage). That means he invented the words unaware, uncomfortable, undress, uneducated, unwillingness, unsolicited, and unreal. Also, words like madcap and eyeball. That’s right, the word eyeball didn’t actually exist until Shakespeare came up with it.

Plenty of Shakespeare phrases have stuck with us too. Some examples mentioned by Shapiro:

Truth will out.
What’s done is done.
Dead as a doornail.
Every dog will have its day.
Fool’s paradise.
The game is afoot.
It’s Greek to me.
Kill with kindness.
Love is blind.
All’s well that end’s well.

See more of Shakespeare’s coinages (via EL). It’s neat to think about one person sitting down and actually creating so many of these words and phrases which now seem ubiquitous.

Ian Hall writes in:

Just ordered from Bodybuilding.com and got this follow-up and thought it was an interesting way of doing some post-order marketing and outreach to build community. Take a product and talk about it, direct people to more information, and recommend additional things they could use to see better results. Dunno if it’s terribly innovative but I thought it was neat, clean, to the point, and, at least in my case, communicated genuine interest and care.

Seems this Missing Missy exchange has made the rounds already but I just discovered it and genuinely LOL’d (GLOL’d?) so figured I’d share. Will prob hit even harder if you’re a designer who’s ever been asked to craft a “quick” design for a co-worker.

Shannon: “I opened the screen door yesterday and my cat got out and has been missing since then so I was wondering if you are not to busy you could make a poster for me.”

David: “Although I have two clients expecting completed work this afternoon, I will, of course, drop everything and do whatever it takes to facilitate the speedy return of Missy.”

Shannon: “yeah thats not what I was looking for at all. it looks like a movie and how come the photo of Missy is so small?”

David: “It’s a design thing. The cat is lost in the negative space.”

Gets stranger/funnier from there.

Time: 23:48 | 08/10/2010 | Download MP3

Summary
In March, 2009, Jason, David, and Matt gathered to edit an initial draft of REWORK. The meeting was recorded and this episode features audio clips of the collaboration.

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Comment from John on the “Office: Details” post:

I wonder how many design sessions were spent on the wording of the “IN USE” sign.

“At first, we had ‘BUSY’. It was ok but it didn’t feel quite right. What if David is in there slacking off, for example? It’s no ‘busy’. So, I went to use Draft [link] and posted the following on Campfire [link]: ‘OCCUPIED’ It was the right meaning this time, but it sounded shitty, like it was an airport bathroom. In the end, Ryan suggested ‘IN USE ’. It just clicked: simple, the right meaning, short and to the point. Perfect.”

Haha. Well played.

Here’s how it would have gone…

Reader Joe Bezdek writes:

Hi Matt.

I recently listened to the podcast episode about REWORK (I’m a bit behind) and I noted that you were the person who initially reviewed all the previously published 37signals material and wrangled it all into an initial outline/draft of the book. I was particularly struck by your comment about how intimidating it was to sit down in front of a blank screen knowing the process that lay before you.

I was hoping you might share what tools (applications, web services, etc.) you used along the way to assist you in editing down such a large volume of material into the initial draft. I’m wondering if tools like DEVONthink, OmniOutliner, Writeboard, or something else entirely helped you get it done.

Answer: It was pretty simple. Basically I started throwing any relevant content into a Pages document. Any blog post that had good potential content for REWORK. Any essay from Getting Real that could relate to a non-software business. I transcribed conference keynotes and interviews with JF and DHH and picked out key bits.

Then I started organizing it. I tried to sort content into relevant categories and began shaping it into a recognizable format. Then JF, DHH, and I started teleconferencing and meeting in person in order to edit text. We’d throw out things that didn’t fit. Edited other things so they matched up in tone & voice. Honed it all and kept getting it better, tighter, and more cohesive.

For this, we used Writeboards sometime. We also used iChat and SubEthaEdit to collaborate.

All along we had a master Pages doc that was the book continually iterating into its final shape.

One other note of interest: Our publisher, Crown, would just send a printout of the entire book with notes handwritten in the margins. Old school.

Iterating over time

Joe responded:

Basically I started throwing any relevant content into a Pages document….Then I started organizing it. I tried to sort content into relevant categories and began shaping it into a recognizable format. That was the part I was particularly curious about. It’s one thing to copy blog posts and transcriptions into a Pages document, the challenge is seeing the common themes and organizing that into some kind of narrative that makes sense. Were there any other tools that helped you do that? (Mind maps?) Or did you just become so familiar with the master Pages document that you were able to connect those dots in your head?

My response to that: No other tools. I think it was just time and iterations. Things were a mess at first but we kept refining the doc over and over until it started to become more cohesive. It was just a pruning process. Not sure any tool would’ve made it easier.

Also, I don’t even know how you use a mind map to help you write something. I just start writing. Usually my process is this: Write too much. Edit it down. Repeat if necessary.

Mark Pilrigm on tools and writing

Coincidentally, within a day or two of responding to Joe, I came across this interview with Mark Pilgrim, Developer advocate at Google [via MM]. In it, he discusses the importance, or lack thereof, of tools on the writing process.

I’m a three-time (soon to be four-time) published author. When aspiring authors learn this, they invariably ask what word processor I use. It doesn’t fucking matter! I happen to write in Emacs. I also code in Emacs, which is a nice bonus. Other people write and code in vi. Other people write in Microsoft Word and code in TextMate+ or TextEdit or some fancy web-based collaborative editor like EtherPad or Google Wave. Whatever. Picking the right text editor will not make you a better writer. Writing will make you a better writer. Writing, and editing, and publishing, and listening – really listening – to what people say about your writing. This is the golden age for aspiring writers. We have a worldwide communications and distribution network where you can publish anything you want and – if you can manage to get anybody’s attention – get near-instant feedback. Writers just 20 years ago would have killed for that kind of feedback loop. Killed! And you’re asking me what word processor I use? Just fucking write, then publish, then write some more.

Good point. Don’t let the “Which tools should I use?” question distract you too much. In the end, the strength of your ideas matter way more than the gear you use.

Note: This post contains screenshots of Safari alerts. So please don’t get alarmed unnecessarily.

The problem: In Highrise, explaining “uncategorization” (what happens when you delete a task category) is difficult…

“Uncategorized” feels unintuitive and sounds ominous. Let’s try this: “There are 2 tasks in this category. Their categories will be changed to ‘None’ if you delete this category.”

Now we’re saying “category” 4 times though. Let’s kill “if you delete this category.”

That’s nice and tight.

Here’s the Campfire discussion where it was all hashed out:

Related:
Design Decisions: Calling out to existing customers on signup
More “Design Decisions” posts