“Jason Fried”

Jason Fried challenges your thinking on fundraising, goals, growth, and more

Great design was a Cuisinart

Jason Fried argues that the original Cuisinart food processor is a near-perfect example of interface design. Its two large paddle buttons, one latching for continuous ON and one spring-loaded for momentary PULSE/OFF…

Hiring judgement

Jason Fried argues that hiring, especially for executive roles, is ultimately a gut decision driven by judgment. Although hiring processes try to add scientific rigor, the essential qualities being evaluated, experience…

A beta is like inviting guests over

Jason Fried argues that the best time to invite outside users into a product is only a week or two before launch, when it is essentially a near-final release rather than an early beta. At that stage he is not seeking…

What to do with $2M?

Jason Fried responds to a young entrepreneur in his mid-20s who sold a business and now holds a couple million dollars in liquid cash, asking whether to invest it, start a new company, or do something else. Fried's…

A fly and luck

Jason Fried describes almost washing his hands with a tiny fly sitting by the drain. Turning on the tap would have sent it down, but a moment of hesitation let the fly escape on its own. The essay uses this small moment…

What's still here?

Jason Fried argues that while curiosity about what's new is expected, it is more valuable to study what has lasted. Products, practices, and ideas that survive repeated attempts to kill them contain durable lessons…

Turning back can be getting ahead

Jason Fried argues that when we meet a simpler system, idea, or implementation, our instinct is often to dismiss it as insufficient. He suggests a better response is to ask why our own work has become so complicated and…

Years of evidence

Jason Fried argues that the common hiring requirement of 'years of experience' is a weak signal, since time spent doing something doesn't guarantee anything was actually produced or learned. He proposes evaluating…

The next product

Jason Fried argues that a new product does not need to be revolutionary or disruptive to succeed. He describes how whole product categories can drift toward ever-greater complexity, with competitors one-upping each…

Go do business

Jason Fried argues that business cannot be learned from books, posts, or threads, because it is a practical skill built through doing. He compares it to music and sports, where reading about a craft never substitutes…

Marketing is...

Jason Fried argues that marketing is less about slogans or campaigns and more about the transfer of whatever a team actually feels about its work. At its best, genuine enthusiasm and care spread outward and become the…

Doing what you think, not what you thought

Jason Fried argues that teams don't need a prioritized backlog to know what to work on next. Choosing the next task is just a series of yes/no decisions, and those can be made as you go, using what you currently know…

The joy of delegating to competence

Jason Fried argues that the excitement around AI agents comes less from the technology itself and more from the psychological experience they create: delegating a task to someone fully competent. He notes that most…

On Legacy

Jason Fried argues that people should not spend much energy thinking about legacy. His core point is to do the best work you can right now, since usefulness later only follows from usefulness today. He challenges the…

The big regression

Jason Fried describes staying in a brand-new rental house packed with smart-home technology and finds it worse than basic, older equipment. Lights, a TV, a dishwasher that needs an app, a thermostat, and an alarm panel…

Mistaking making for the thing you've made

Jason Fried argues that how fast a product is built, how many commits or people went into it, and how many hours were spent are all development metrics about the work, not the product. These measures say nothing about…

The bespoke software revolution? I'm not buying it.

Jason Fried argues against the idea that AI will spark a bespoke software revolution where everyone builds their own custom tools. He notes that custom software already exists and is usually bloated because clients pay…

We increased conversion ~30% and we don't know exactly how

Jason Fried describes a six-week sprint at Basecamp focused on smoothing the trial-to-paid onboarding experience, which bundled many small changes at once: a sample Getting Started project, a one-step project creation…

Knives and battleships

Jason Fried responds to the recurring criticism that Basecamp makes 'yet another' to-do list, chat, or messaging product. He admits the pull toward grander missions in tech is real, but argues it looks odd when applied…

Why new when?

Jason Fried, co-founder of Basecamp, answers a common question: why build something brand new instead of adding it to an existing product? He argues that a fresh start gives teams the freedom to explore new technology…

Cover letters? Yes!

Jason Fried defends the continued use of cover letters in hiring, responding to people who think they no longer matter. He argues that a cover letter is the first and most revealing signal of an applicant's effort…

An obligation to independence

Jason Fried argues that owning an independent company is a rare privilege, one that frees leaders to experiment in ways that public companies and businesses forced to justify every move cannot. He encourages owners not…

Randomly right

Jason Fried's short essay argues that randomness, as seen in untouched nature, is among the most beautiful things there is. He describes forests, fields, stones, light, wind, and water as arrangements that never line up…

Quality: The Concept2 RowErg

Jason Fried, co-founder of Basecamp, praises the Concept2 RowErg indoor rowing machine as a benchmark of product quality. He describes its simple, durable construction, low maintenance, easy assembly and compact…

$5300 in $100s: The verdict

Jason Fried reports the results of an experiment where a free event charged a refundable $100 admission, returned at the door to attendees who showed up. Of 55 paid signups, 50 attended, a 90% show rate, compared with…

$5300 in $100s

Jason Fried describes an experiment for a free in-person Basecamp event in Chicago: attendees pay a $100 refundable deposit at registration and get the cash back at the door if they show up. The problem is that free…

When design drives behavior

Jason Fried argues that the most interesting design is the kind that changes how people behave, not just how something looks or works. He uses the power reserve indicator on the A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 watch as an…

Introducing Fizzy, our newest product

Jason Fried announces Fizzy, a new kanban-style card-and-column tool from the team behind Basecamp. He argues that popular issue-tracking tools like Trello, Jira, and Asana have grown bloated and complicated, drifting…