Jason Fried thinks deeply about collaboration, productivity and the nature of work and has a radical theory of working: that the office isn't a good place to do it. He calls out the two main offenders (call them the M&Ms) and offers three suggestions to make the workplace actually work.
This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxMidwest, an independent event. TED editors featured it among our selections on the home page.
Jason Fried the co-founder of 37signals, makers of Basecamp and other web-based collaboration tools, and co-author of "Rework."Jason Fried is the co-founder and president of 37signals , a Chicago-based company that builds web-based productivity tools that, in their words, "do less than the competition — intentionally." 37signals' simple but powerful collaboration tools include Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, Campfire, Ta-da List, and Writeboard. 37signals also developed and open-sourced the Ruby on Rails programming framework.
Fried is the co-author, with David Heinemeier Hansson, of the book Rework, about new ways to conceptualize working and creating. Salon's Scott Rosenberg called it "a minimalist manifesto that's profoundly practical. In a world where we all keep getting asked to do more with less, the authors show us how to do less and create more."
What others say
“Today at TEDxMidwest, 37Signals' Jason Fried gave a talk covering his popular ‘rework’ ideas. As the audience was made up of a different sort of people than you see at a technology event, his points were slightly more revolutionary than usual” — Alex Wilhelm, TheNextWeb.com