Friday 29 March 2013

Book Review: ReWork – Change the Way You Work Forever, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Work needn't be unpleasant! And this book here describes that ideal company to work for, or, best-case-scenario, that ideal company to create!! Found myself agreeing with near enough everything in this book. Great points and good questions raised. Such as: what is it with businesses/organisations and the obsession to grow? If you've found a good size for what you do, why not stick to it?? Or, why the obsession with working 40+ hour weeks? Throwing hours at problems and creating zombie cultures isn't the best way to go. Or, why the obsession to add features to products just for the sake of adding features?? Better to question whether the features you're adding actually add value or detract from the product's purpose. And why the need to schedule an hour's meeting when seven minutes is all that's required?! And so on and so forth. Definitely worth a read.

Friday 8 March 2013

Book Review: Execute, by Drew Wilson and Josh Long


Inspiring! That's what this book sets out to do and that's what it does!! Great book - put together in just eight days - about the joys of executing on ideas and making stuff. Great reminder firstly about working smart (recovering between sprints etc) and secondly about the importance of having projects outside of 'work' on the go, keeping them simple and seeing them through (design, development, marketing, support) to completion.