It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work

Posing real, pointed questions is the only way to convey that it’s safe to provide real answers.

The team that’s doing the work has control over the work. They wield the “scope hammer,” as we call it. They can crush the big must-haves into smaller pieces and then judge each piece individually and objectively. Then they can sort, sift, and decide what’s worth keeping and what can wait.

if the sole reason they work there is to answer questions and be available for everyone else all day long, well, then, okay, sounds good. But our experts have their own work to do, too. You can’t have both.

you work full-time, when was the last time you actually got to disconnect full-time?

The shared work calendar is one of the most destructive inventions of modern times.

All subject-matter experts at Basecamp now publish office hours.

It’s not that any particular choice is the right one, but not making one or dithering is definitely the wrong one.

Just like work expands to fill the time available, work expands to fill the team available.

Creativity, progress, and impact do not yield to brute force.