It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work
by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Short chapters arguing for the calm company: no goals-for-goals'-sake, 40-hour weeks, no open-plan interruptions, few meetings, six-week project cycles and a refusal to treat urgency as virtue. It is opinionated and occasionally smug, and most of the opinions are right.
Read it if…
your workplace runs on urgency and you want a credible argument for calm.
Skip it if…
you want nuance; this is a manifesto.
Three things you will actually use
- Calm is a choice a company makes, not a luxury it earns.
- Protect attention like money.
- Eight hours of work should fit in eight hours.
Do this first
Protect one four-hour block a day with no meetings or chat, for a week.
Our verdict
A manifesto for the calm company.
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