Interview with 37Signals Jason Fried

Here is a quick interview read on Web Worker Daily with Jason Fried, founder of 37Signals. I do not know much about the company 37Signals other than the names of some of their products like Basecamp and Campfire. We use Basecamp in my company for project management. It is not fully sufficient for needs but that is because our needs are beyond the scope of the software, not that the software itself is insufficient. In fact, the Basecamp software is quite modest, simple, and extremely useful. What struck me about Fried’s comments in this interview was his take on physical proximity being more of a distraction and interference with productivity in the workplace than it is a benefit. In my work, I find this to be quite true. There are constant interruptions each day with people buzzing me on the phone and coming into my office (or me buzzing other people’s phones and going into their offices). Sometimes it seems that we would all get more done if we locked ourselves in our own offices. But then again, there is the irreplaceable benefit of face-to-face interaction for productivity. Fried also commented that they rarely use email. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for this. Email has to be the single most counter-productive tool in the workplace. I spend more time filtering spam and deleting pointless threads between co-workers than I do actually addressing the legitimate needs and issues that come to me on email. I do believe an online collaboration tool would be better, but that requires buy-in from your co-workers. Well check out the interview and let me know your thoughts or if you want to talk about Basecamp and/or Campfire. Reference Article