iPhone Notes: Jason Fried at SXSW

We were lucky enough to see an awesome lecture from Jason Fried at SXSW. Like Kathy Sierra's lecture, all of the notes below were taken on my iPhone.

10 things we learned @ 37 signals

The great unknown.
Who knows - who cares.

• focus on the now not the then.
• optimize for now.

Red flags

• need: puts a barrier up
• can't: negative thinking
• easy: something we normally use to describe other peoples jobs

Spot the chain reactions

• build projects that people are going to get things out of.
• don't worry about charging for things!

Target non consumers and non-consumption

• the markets that the entrenched players aren't properly targeting.
• minimize competition from the entrenched players

Question your work regularly

• identify things that aren't changing behavior.

Read your product

• the words matter.
• bad copy is the greatest sin of web design.
• rewrite first, rewrite second

Err, on the side of simple

• always start with the easy way
• more often than not the easy way satisfies 80% of your needs
• get three things done in 1 week instead of one thing done in three weeks
• the longer you spend on development the less likely you are to launch it
• resist the urge to try to do more the next time around

Invest in what doesn't change

• today and ten years from now

Follow the chefs

• lagasse
• batali
• flay
• building by sharing
• tell people what you know
• you reach a huge audience when you give away you're knowledge

Interruption is the biggest enemy of productivity

• when David moved to Chicago the less work they got done
• focus on passive communication

Road maps send you on the wrong direction

• lock you into a path - the past
• Its ok to think about the future but don't write it down
• do the write thing at the right time

Be clear in crisis

• be open public honest and responsive
• the web doesnt shutup just because you have
• of you don't deal with it the public will speculate it

Breakdown problems

• When you make tiny decisions you can't make big mistakes

Make it matter

• every decision you make should matter