37signals why are we doing this

We love sharing our ideas on business, culture, design, and technology with the world. Either way, thanks for visiting Basecamp. We the Basecamp! Read the story of how Basecamp got started. Ruby on Rails was born here! Giving a damn Treating people right is fundamental to how we do business. I usually just eat at my desk. We have a catered lunch every Thursday that everyone in the Chicago office is encouraged to attend, because we don't see each other very often. We also plan a company vacation twice a year -- last year, we went to Maine and rural Wisconsin.

So all the employees see each other for five days, twice a year. We talk about business; people might spend a few hours each day getting together to work on stuff, but there's also fun free time. When you don't see each other very often, you appreciate the time more when you get together. After lunch, I get a little lazy between 1 p. I don't feel that productive, so I'm usually screwing around, which I think is really important.

Everyone should read stuff on the Web that's goofy or discover something new. I hate it when businesses treat their employees like children. They block Facebook or YouTube because they want their employees to work eight hours a day.

But instead of getting more productivity, you're getting frustration. What's the point? As long as the work gets done, I don't care what people do all day. I like to read in the middle of the day, to give myself a break.

I don't read fiction. I find it a waste of time. There are so many amazing things that are real; I don't need to spend any time on a made-up story.

I like to read biographies, especially books about inventors and their inventions. I'm also interested in American history. Around 3 p. The one I'm drinking lately is gyokuro, which has high levels of theanine, a potent amino acid that helps you really focus for a few hours.

Launches are the most hectic times, because so many things will go wrong. But the cool thing about Web-based software is you can update things in real time. If something is broken, we can fix it in three seconds, hopefully. But as we get bigger, small problems become bigger faster. Every move you make now is magnified, especially with launches. An announcement that might upset a few people today will upset a few hundred tomorrow.

I spend a lot of time responding to that. I have about 15, followers on Twitter -- some are loyal customers, some are people who hate me. I don't know 99 percent of them, but many of them are waiting for an opportunity to say "you suck. It can hurt sometimes. You have to grow some thick skin. I'm in charge of the finances for the company. We have an accountant who runs the numbers, which David and I look at daily.

We built an administrative screen that shows us how many customers signed up, upgraded, downgraded, or canceled a product. I will check these numbers throughout the day: Everything updates in real time.

I can also see where the traffic spikes are coming from -- a news story, blog mention, or Google search. That's how I discover where we are being talked about. We don't have big, long-term plans, because they're scary -- and they're usually wrong. Making massive decisions keeps people up at night -- I don't like to make those. The closer you can get to understanding what that next moment might be, the less worried you are. Most of the decisions we make are in the moment, on the fly, as we go.

I usually leave the office around 6 p. It's not a rigid thing that exists, it's a flexible, malleable idea that evolves. We aren't stuck with what we have, we can create what we want. Just as we improve products through iteration, we iterate on our company too. Recently, we've made some internal company changes, which, taken in total, collectively feel like a full version change. It deserves an announcement.

In the product world, not all changes are enjoyed by all customers. Some changes are immediately appreciated. Some changes take time to steep, settle in, and get acquainted with. And to some, some changes never feel quite right — they may even be deal breakers. The same is true when changing your company, except that the customers are the employees. And when you get to a certain count — customers or employees or both — there's no pleasing everyone. You can't — there are too many unique perspectives, experiences, and individuals.

As Huxley offers in The Doors of Perception , "We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone.

Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. A relevant reminder.

We make individual choices. We all want different somethings. Some slightly different, some substantially. Companies, however, must settle the collective difference, pick a point, and navigate towards somewhere, lest they get stuck circling nowhere.

With that, we wanted to put these directional changes on the public record. Historically we've tried to share as much as we can — for us, and for you — so this transmission continues the tradition. No more societal and political discussions on our company Basecamp account. Today's social and political waters are especially choppy. Sensitivities are at 11, and every discussion remotely related to politics, advocacy, or society at large quickly spins away from pleasant. Thanks for the questions!

Jason Fried wrote this on Sep 28 There are 8 comments. Ian Silber on 28 Sep Growing up is probably the most important growing a company can do. By growing up I mean getting older, smarter, more efficient, etc. Jason S. First off, sorry Jason for not putting my last initial a few posts ago, forgot you only use your first name when posting : Facebook Failure I really wish that someone over at Facebook read this article this past spring, when they were working out the Facebook Platform.

The Difference Facebook now has a huge headquarters with over employees. The Good and the Bad I must give credit to the Pandora team that has created an excellent Facebook application and musical experience. So that means, out of my class of 20 students, there might be one other student listed on Facebook… Thank you 37Signals Thank you 37 Signals for staying small while still growing.

Walt Kania on 29 Sep Intriguing perspective, Jason. To you, growing is about getting better. Not bigger. I like that.