Rework

For some, this book might come across as being highly unorthodox. For me, it helped me realize that maybe my approach to ‘doing business’ is not totally crazy.
Worth Reading
Self Improvement
Business
Author

Andrew Lis

Published

November 22, 2024

I haven’t ever really written about “career” or “business” things on this blog, so this is probably a first for this space.

The highway to my way

I’ve made a lot of mistakes in achieving whatever little “success” I’ve had in life so far, and I recognize that there’s always a role of dumb luck to it all as well.

If I had to summarize what has ‘worked’ for me (to this point) in a phrase, it’d be something like:

Be unorthodox, but be principled.

This may seem a bit contradictory at first blush, and it’s a difficult nuance to convey in a few words.

For example, one shouldn’t be unorthodox purely for the sake of being unorthodox.

That’s just being a try-hard.

The nuance is actually pretty hard to pin down.

Which is why I’m writing this post about a book I came across recently that does a pretty good job of conveying this ‘advice’ in ways I’ve often struggled to put into simple terms.

The book is called Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, which, at it’s core, is a book about being unorthodox while being principled.

Likes

Aspects of the book I enjoyed were those that discussed taking a lean approach to business and ‘business practices’ in general.

For example, they take a very dim view of meetings, which is a view I emphatically support.

I’ve found that the frequency of “regular meetings” (in a corporate context) is a powerful indicator of the degree to which an organization pursues functionally useless initiatives.

And meetings can often breed even more meetings, which only serves to compound the problem.

They also discuss hiring talent based on demonstrable skill, rather than location or academic accolades, which is also a view I wholeheartedly support.

And there’s a lot of ink devoted to the uselessness of long-term planning, opting for small incremental changes that are easier to forecast and pivot from, should things not turn out as planned.

It’s really all about minimizing wasted time, risk, and money, which arguably should be the guiding principles of any business.

But sadly, they’re usually not – especially as organizations grow larger.

Dislikes

If there’s drawbacks or blind spots to the book, I think it’s mainly that the authors enjoy the tremendous benefit of being able to run a (successful!) organization as they see fit, and their “advice” can at times be impractical for those who operate in more orthodox corporate settings.

I think the principles they espouse are generally sound, but implementation really hinges on organizational context, and I think some businesses lend themselves much more naturally to these ideas than others.

But it’s a refreshing read for anyone who finds themselves always running perpendicular to those who tow the corporate line and follow corporate orthodoxy.

My take

The main takeaway (for me), is that while “the unorthodox way I do things” in a corporate setting might annoy some people at times, it’s good to know I’m actually not alone out there.

Which is somewhat comforting, I guess.

But realistically, if anyone wants to truly ‘do business’ beating to their own drum, they’ll probably have to strike out on their own because orthodoxy is still the ruling dogma in most corporations.

And that’s really who this book is for: people wanting to strike out on their own.

So, from that standpoint, I think this book has a lot to offer those on that path, and I’d say it’s definitely worth reading.

Footnotes

  1. A term I use loosely to describe a situation in which I’m not (currently) poor, and have reason to believe the various efforts I’ve put in throughout my life probably had something to do with my current level of life satisfaction. Though personally, I still feel like there’s a hell of a lot more I’d like to achieve in terms of “success”.↩︎

  2. Which also made me feel validated for putting these ideas into practice, often going against the grain.↩︎

  3. Certainly an increasingly unorthodox position as more and more organizations force employees back to offices and cubicles, in the post-pandemic world.↩︎

  4. Though I’m sure their advice would be to get the hell out of that setting ASAP as it’s killing you slowly.↩︎