Build Less
Do less than your competitors to beat them.
Change must be easy and cheap. Lower the cost of change by:
- Less features.
- Less options/preferences.
- Less people and corporate structure (software is easy, people are hard).
- Less software (each line of code needs to be maintained).
Be Yourself
Smaller companies are closer to customers by default.
The leaner you are, the easier it is to change. Differentiate yourself from bigger companies by:
- Being personal and friendly.
- Hire the right customer, build something you can manage.
- Decide the little details so your customers don’t have to.
Make Opinionated Software
The best software has a vision: decide what your vision and run with it.
Build software for general concepts and encourage people to create their own software:
- Build software for yourself.
- Forget feature requests. Be consistent.
- Decisions are temporary so make the call and move on.
Software is Never Done
- Later is eternal, now is fleeting.
- Working is better than perfect.
- Focus is better than features.
- Compatibility is better than purity.
- Simplicity is better than anything.