This Week in Startups

E1029: Basecamp Co-Founder & Author David Heinemeier Hansson (@DHH) debates Jason on reining in capitalism, benefits of state-run education & healthcare, big-tech disappointments, work-from-home paradigm shift, wealth tax & more!

Feb 18, 2020
David Heinemeier Hansson, co-founder of Basecamp and creator of Ruby on Rails, shares his bold views on the future of work and capitalism. He discusses the shift to remote work, questioning old definitions of productivity and the negative impact of long commutes. David advocates for higher wages, critiques the gig economy, and explores Denmark's effective education and healthcare systems as models for change in America. The conversation dives into big tech monopolies, the ethics of billionaires, and the importance of user privacy in digital communication.
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ANECDOTE

Remote Work Origins

  • David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried began working remotely in 2001, collaborating on a blog post.
  • They didn't even speak on the phone for six months, communicating solely through email and IM.
ADVICE

Budgeting over Estimation

  • Focus on project budgets, not estimates, for creative work like software development.
  • Give employees a timeframe and trust them to deliver a great product within that budget.
INSIGHT

Incentive Systems

  • Incentive systems can undermine intrinsic motivation by prioritizing extrinsic rewards.
  • This can lead to optimizing for metrics instead of focusing on genuine product quality.
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