David Heinemeier Quotes & Sayings

Secret to productivity is not finding more time to do more stuff, but finding the strength to do less of the stuff that doesnt need doing. — David Heinemeier Hansson

One pattern to help yourself fight the mad dash for the mirage of being done is to think of a good day's work. Look at the progress of the day towards the end and ask yourself: 'Have I done a good day's work?' — David Heinemeier Hansson

You're better off with a kick-ass half than a half-assed whole. — David Heinemeier Hansson

Workaholics don't actually accomplish more than nonworkaholics. They may claim to be perfectionists, but that just mean they're wasting time fixating on inconsequential details instead of moving on to the next task. — David Heinemeier Hansson

Nobody is an overnight success. Most overnight successes you see have been working at it for ten years. — David Heinemeier Hansson

If you can't figure out how to make money on three billion in revenue, when exactly will the profit magic be found? Ten billion? Fifty billion? — David Heinemeier Hansson

My whole thing was, if I can put in 5 percent of the effort of somebody getting an A, and I can get a C minus, that's amazing," he explains. "It's certainly good enough, right? [Then] I can take the other 95 percent of the time and invest it in something I really care about. — David Heinemeier Hansson

If you're not working on your best idea right now, you're doing it wrong. — David Heinemeier Hansson

It's a lot harder to pull your head up and ask why. — David Heinemeier Hansson

When sparks fly, some truly great ideas come to light. — David Heinemeier Hansson

Ignore the real world
"That would never work in the real world." You hear it all the time when you tell people about a fresh idea.
This real world sounds like an awfully depressing place to live. It's a place where new ideas, unfamiliar approaches, and foreign concepts always
lose. The only things that win are what people already know and do, even if those things are flawed and inefficient.
Scratch the surface and you'll find these "real world" inhabitants are filled with pessimism and despair. They expect fresh concepts to fail. They
assume society isn't ready for or capable of change.
Even worse, they want to drag others down into their tomb. If you're hopeful and ambitious, they'll try to convince you your ideas are impossible.
They'll say you're wasting your time. — David Heinemeier Hansson

Forcing everyone into the office every day is an organizational SPoF (Single Point of Failure). If the office loses power or Internet or air conditioning, it's no longer functional as a place to do work. If a company doesn't have any training or infrastructure to work around that, it means it's going to be unavailable to its customers. — David Heinemeier Hansson

Most software has a tiny essence that justifies its existence, everything after that is wants and desires mistaken for needs and necessities. — David Heinemeier Hansson

There's nothing that will bring realism into your world as quickly as realizing that you're out of cash. — David Heinemeier Hansson

When you yet to do 100% of what somebody wants, you need a perfect match, and it's pretty rare that you have a perfect match between what you thought people needed and what they actually need. If you try instead to do 80 percent of what they need, there's a pretty good chance you'll hit a sweet spot. — David Heinemeier Hansson