[Reading Log -135] Rework
I finished reading "Rework".
And, as usual, I set out to write a reading log...
But my hands stopped immediately.
This book is composed of over 100 short chapters.
The writing style is like a letter from a senior business owner, and the content covers a wide range of topics. Meetings, hiring, marketing, work styles, product development... everything imaginable.
That's right, this book is a collection of letters.
That is why I cannot summarize it by saying, "This is a book written about X."
There is one passage in this book that left a particularly strong impression on me.
You can market anytime you have a means of communication. Answering the phone, writing an email, a system error message, the checkout counter, and invoices are all marketing.
I haven't studied marketing professionally, but after reading this, the meaning of the word "marketing" changed a little for me.
Marketing is not just about advertisements and social media.
Everyone in every department has a point of contact with the market.
Thinking about it that way, Drucker's statement that "the purpose of a business is to create a customer" also looks a little different. Perhaps customers are not something you acquire by spending money on ads, but something born from the accumulation of daily communication.
After finishing it, I suddenly became curious about the company name.
- 37signals -
The founders of this company, and the authors of this book, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, have been running their company with a small team for over 20 years.
This company name 37signals apparently comes from the "37 unexplained signals" observed by SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence). SETI refers to the activity of searching for messages sent by extraterrestrial intelligent life.
However, what they are doing is the opposite of SETI.
They write books, write blogs, and continue to make their thinking and the inside of their company public.
It looks like METI (Messaging for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), which continues to send messages out into space. "Somewhere out there, there is someone who shares our values." Believing that, they continue to quietly send out signals.
That is why this book does not try to persuade the reader.
They do not teach that "this is the correct answer," but continue to send out the signal that "this is how we think."
Only those who receive that signal will think, "I like this company."
The first edition of this book was in 2010. It is a book from over 15 years ago.
Nevertheless, it does not feel old at all. That is likely because the authors are talking about the fundamental principles of "what is work" and "what is a company."
The original title of this book is "REWORK."
It is a signal from the authors to rethink your approach to work.
Companies should grow
Meetings are necessary
Planning is important
You should take external funding
Marketing is advertising
Workaholism is a virtue
We should probably try rewriting those common assumptions.