Rework: Change The Way You Work Forever

Rework: Change The Way You Work Forever

Synopsis

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, founders of the multi-million dollar software company 37signals, follow a simpler-is-better philosophy. This extends from writing their award-winning software

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• Comprehensive review of "Rework"

  Reviewed by Adam Wozniak | see all reviews by Adam Wozniak

  11/08/2010

  I thought this book was an excellent read. It's definitely not a step-by-step how-to book, but the book doesn't make the claim that it is. The book claims that it will present ideas and concept that will "rework" the beliefs you have about work. And it does precisely that.
  
  I've had a look at some of the negative reviews on the web, and generally they seem to fall into these categories:
  
  
  1) Criticisms of the length.
  
  Yes, this book is somewhere around 288 pages long, and yes - if you consider the fact that a lot of white space is used and almost every second page is an illustration - it's probably more like 140 pages long. But that's not a bad thing. It's a quick, concise, and extremely coherent piece of work. There is value in not rambling. And there is also value in presenting text in an easy-to-read fashion (unlike typical hardcore business books that due to the publisher's page limitations, end up structuring pages like one huge wall of text ... *ugh*).
  
  
  2) Criticisms of the concepts not being grounded in "reality".
  
  I don't understand this criticism. The whole point of "Rework" is to challenge pre-existing assumptions about how we do business. Naturally, many of the book's concepts will be EXTREMELY difficult for some people to swallow (especially those coming from the corporate world, I suspect). You might feel quite a bit of resistance with some of the concepts. But again, that's the whole point of this book. You don't necessarily have to agree with EVERYTHING it says, but you should at least be questioning your existing beliefs after reading this. If you're not prepared to do that, and just want to read a book that confirms your traditional business concepts, then this is probably not the book for you.
  
  
  3) Criticisms about the lack of new content.
  
  This criticism is one that is only raised by those people who are REGULAR readers of 37 Signals' blog. Yes, if you do follow that blog closely (along with others in the same field), then it's possible that 90% of the concepts presented in this book are not going to be new to you. And that's cool. But speaking for myself, I liked the fact that I now have the best concepts on my reference shelf in easy to find (and digest) form whenever I need them. That, again, has value in itself. But if you want to spend hours searching through 37 Signals' blog just to save $12, then you're not implementing a "judo solution" (ie. maximum efficiency with minimum effort).
  
  
  For my complete review and summary of the book (containing some of the best highlights so that you can see for sure whether this book is something you'd like to read), please feel free to check out:
  
  http://www.wecancreate.com/blog/entrepreneurship/book-review-rework-by-jason-fried-david-heinemeir-hansson-from-37-signals/
  
  I hope it helps you decide whether or not this is the book for you. :)
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