REWORK

Basecamp has a long history of experimenting with "freemium" models and recently launched its most generous free plan yet: Basecamp Personal. Co-founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson talk about the debate and data analysis that went into the launch, what makes this a little scary, and why it's healthy for a business to experiment.Show Notes"Launch: Basecamp Gets Personal" (Signal v. Noise) - 00:1337signals' 2004 announcement about the launch of Basecamp - 1:44Basecamp's announcement about closing Backpack to new signups - 2:18"Launch: Basecamp 3" (Signal v. Noise) - 2:31Our episode about finding an SEO consultant - 7:10Our episode introducing Basecamp's new head of marketing - 7:18Basecamp's ace Support team - 23:46Our episode about the Apple Card controversy and algorithmic bias - 25:06Basecamp Personal on Product Hunt - 26:10Basecamp's "Until the End of the Internet" policy - 26:53

Basecamp has cut back its reliance on Amazon and Google, but there's one area where it's tough to find alternatives to Big Tech: cloud services. Even so, there are ways to cut spending on this $3 million annual expense while keeping the company's apps running smoothly. In this episode, Blake Stoddard on Basecamp's Ops team talks about how he volunteered to look for savings on cloud services and really delivered—to the tune of over a half-million dollars.Show NotesBlake Stoddard on Twitter - 1:27AWS Lambda - 4:45The Reddit hug of death is also known as the Slashdot effect - 4:55Maybe Roxane Gay can save us from our cord-cutting dystopia - 15:49

Basecamp co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson sparked a national controversy this week when he posted a series of livid tweets about how his wife received a much lower credit limit than he did on their Apple Cards, despite applying with the same financial information. What began as a rant against opaque algorithms turned into a regulatory investigation and more. In this episode, Dr. Ruha Benjamin of Princeton University and entrepreneur Mara Zepeda, co-founder of the XXcelerate Fund and Zebras Unite, talk about how the tech and financial sectors perpetuate systemic inequalities and how to start repairing the damage—or building something more equitable and inclusive from the ground up.Show NotesApple Card - 1:31DHH's Twitter thread - 1:53Steve Wozniak's response - 1:58The New York Department of Financial Services' announcement of its investigation into Goldman Sachs - 2:11"About the Apple Card" (Jamie Heinemeier Hansson) - 2:28Ruha Benjamin's website | Twitter - 2:57Race After Technology by Ruha Benjamin - 2:59University of Michigan article about the failures of the state's MiDAS system - 7:31"Racial bias in a medical algorithm favors white patients over sicker black patients" (Washington Post) - 8:18"Biased bots: Artificial-intelligence systems echo human prejudices" (Princeton University) - 12:40"Amazon scraps secret AI recruiting tool that showed bias against women" (Reuters) - 14:15Ruha Benjamin's Resources - 15:29Joy Buolamwini on Twitter - 16:52"Atlanta Asks Google Whether It Targeted Black Homeless People" (NYT) - 17:40Tuskegee Study, 1932-1972 (CDC) - 18:35Atlantic article about J. Marion Sims and his experiments on enslaved women - 18:51NYT article about China's use of facial recognition technology to oppress the Uighur minority - 20:10"Somerville Bans Government Use Of Facial Recognition Tech" (WBUR) - 20:38"Can you make AI fairer than a judge? Play our courtroom algorithm game" (MIT Technology Review) - 22:31

Jason Meller - 00:25"What is SSL?" - 1:13This is Outback Steakhouse's page for the Bloomin' Onion, which is categorized as an "Aussie-tizer." Yes, that's what Outback calls appetizers. I cannot un-know this fact and now I pass it to you. - 2:43"At an Outback Steakhouse Franchise, Surveillance Blooms" (Wired) - 2:51"Presto Launches Computer Vision Product for Real-Time Restaurant Operations Insights" (Presto press release) - 3:18"The Employer-Surveillance State" (The Atlantic) - 3:40Kolide - 5:45Basecamp's security overview with a mention of Shipshape (PDF) - 20:54"Introducing Netflix Stethoscope" (The Netflix Tech Blog) - 20:58

Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard - 2:57Max Temkin is a Chicagoan and a co-creator of Cards Against Humanity - 4:01Little Free Library - 4:04Maverick by Ricardo Semler - 4:48Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letters by Warren Buffett - 5:27Amazon's 2018 shareholder letter by Jeff Bezos - 5:38Listen to our previous episodes about hiring a director of marketing, "In the Market for a Marketer" and "Meet Andy" - 13:02

Art19 - 1:02The Distance - 1:09Tweet from Kevin Finn to DHH / "Heal the Internet" - 1:15Buzzsprout - 1:21Video about Art19's new ad technology - 1:28DHH's tweet about leaving Art19 ASAP - 3:23Transistor - 3:52Lex Friedman - 4:16"Breaking: Two Top Stitcher Executives leave for Art19" (Hot Pod) - 10:58California Consumer Privacy Act (Wikipedia) - 23:20Justin Jackson - 40:24Jon Buda - 40:34The Good News Podcast, a show by Cards Against Humanity - 40:45"Crafting Radio's Driveway Moments" (NPR) - 42:26Sleep With Me podcast - 56:38Justin Jackson's post on getting to $30K - 58:21DHH's personal website - 1:02:27

"In the Market for a Marketer," our previous episode - 00:22Andy Didorosi | Detroit Bus Co. - 00:50"How Detroit ended up with the worst public transit" (Detroit Metro Times, 2014) - 1:45"Baby Shark (doo doo do doo do doo), explained" (Vox) - 16:00Jalopnik - 17:15Andy's talk at the 2014 Adobe 99U Conference, "What Detroit Taught Me About Getting Things Done" - 19:04"Eminem Opens a 'Mom's Spaghetti' Pop-Up in Detroit" (Vice, 2017) - 19:50Small Giants - 20:24

"Hire When It Hurts," our previous episode about hiring - 00:57"Farewell, Happy Camper," our episode about rebranding Basecamp - 1:51A Signal v. Noise post by Jason about design challenges for job candidates - 4:26Detroit Bus Co. - 11:17

She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey (IndieBound.org) - 00:40Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, from Chess to Role-Playing Games by Jon Peterson (IndieBound.org) - 1:14"Independent Women," our previous podcast's episode about Women & Children First bookstore - 1:31"Heal the Internet," our episode where David Heinemeier Hansson endorsed IndieBound - 2:00Danny Caine's website - 2:37The Raven Book Store's website | Twitter | Instagram - 2:40The Raven's viral Twitter thread from April 2019 - 6:46"Amazon will pay $0 in taxes on $11,200,000,000 in profit for 2018" (Yahoo Finance) - 10:10Books Are Magic - 11:00Caitlin Doughty - 13:17"Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale sequel escapes from tight secrecy" (The Guardian) - 14:46The Raven's Twitter thread about the embargo on The Testaments - 16:36The huge demand for Michelle Obama's memoir affected printing capacity for Basecamp cofounders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson's book, which came out in the fall 2018. We covered those issues in this episode - 19:19Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat - 19:28The Raven's Twitter thread on bestsellers - 20:23Quoth the Raven newsletter - 20:30Paradise Cafe Cookbook by Missy McCoy - 21:24El Dorado Freddy's, Danny Caine's forthcoming book of poetry - 23:38The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead - 24:38Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann - 25:18The Instructions by Adam Levin - 26:33Wailin's husband read William Gass' The Tunnel so you don't have to - 28:22

DHH on Twitter - 00:53Matt Mullenweg's website | Twitter - 00:57The Twitter conversation that started the debate - 1:07WordPress.org - 1:40Automattic website - 1:45Automattic's Series D funding announcement - 1:54Matt Mullenweg's interview with TechCrunch - 3:30"Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: Sleep Is Our Competition" (Fast Company) - 9:19A 2005 demo by DHH on creating a blog engine in 15 minutes - 16:49"The deal Jeff Bezos got on Basecamp" (Signal v. Noise) - 24:16Benevolent dictator for life (Wikipedia) - 46:21DHH on the Django Chat podcast - 46:37"Richard Stallman resigns from MIT over Epstein comments" (The Verge) - 47:15Automattic Acquires Tumblr from Verizon - 56:17