37 Signals Company

37 Signals

This blog post is mostly for me and my colleagues. This company have their 37 signals (37 bullet points about their company). In this section you will find generally what those signals are. You can read about them on their own website: 37 Signals

• 37 Signals have no investors. They are independent company who try things that other companies would be afraid to try.
• Their position about work is that work is not about war. Most companies think about work as a war (targetting customers, destroying competition, etc). They come in peace.
• Their team is small. They say that big things can be achieved by small teams, and it is hard to do small things with big teams.
• Their profit motive is simple: Make more that you spend.
• I like their 5th signal which says Act and move on... Most decisions are temproray anyway.
• Six weeks is enough to make meaningful progress, and short enough to see the end result.
• They do not sell customer data which is very crucial for users. No one wants their data to be sold.
• 8 hours for work, 8 hours for life, 8 hours of sleep (8/8/8).
• Urgency is overrated
• Work remotely, not locally apart. Trust your colleagues. Have fewer meetings, and communicate asynchronously instead.
• 60 uninterrupted minutes is a higher-quality hour than an hour chopped into four 15-minute sessions.
• Meetings should be the last resort, not first-option. Think about if you can just write it up and is it worth it?
• Put in a good day’s work, close the damn laptop, and get on with life.
• Optimize for total outcome, not just immediate spending. Delaying necessary investment often costs more than buying the thing.
• Everyone in the same position gets paid the same, no matter where they live or who they are — anywhere in the world.
• “No” is no to one thing. “Yes” is no to a lot of things.
• Long-term planning is what you thought. Short-term planning is what you think.
• The right decision should be the aim. Companies should take time to discuss, think, and reconsider. If you disagree, that’s fine, but once the decision is made, it’s time to commit and support it completely.
• Sometimes events that grind you to a halt are the ones that propel you forward.
• The reason that most of us are unhappy most of the time is that we set our goals — not for the person we’re going to be when we reach them — we set our goals for the person we are when we set them. (Jim Coudal)
• Fuck FOMO, embrace JOMO (Joy Of Missing Out). Life’s better when you’re missing the stuff that doesn’t matter anyway.
• The smaller the company, group, or team, the fewer opportunities for miscommunication.
• 37 Signals invented Ruby on Rails ;) They are truly the legends.
• 3 year plan? Make it a 3 week plan. 10 year plan? 10 week plan. Plan more often, not less often. The nearer-term your plans, the more accurate they’ll be.
• Companies are not families. They don’t eat into people’s personal time, they don’t ask people to dial-in during vacations, and they don’t push them to work Sundays to prep for the meeting on Monday.

My Thoughts

I didn't know about this company at all until today. CEO in my company gave us the homework to read about this company. And actually this was great read. Only from these notes I can tell that people who work there are happy and ready to ship high-quality products. This company was founded in 1999 and it still lives, which shows how great this company and how good their signals are. I recommend everyone who read this to read it again on their own website: 37 Signals

Thanks 37 Signals for great notes and ideas! I really tried to credit this company.