Ratings6
Average rating4.2
Getting Real details the business, design, programming, and marketing principles of 37signals. The book is packed with keep-it-simple insights, contrarian points of view, and unconventional approaches to software design. This is not a technical book or a design tutorial, it's a book of ideas. Anyone working on a web app - including entrepreneurs, designers, programmers, executives, or marketers - will find value and inspiration in this book. 37signals used the Getting Real process to launch five successful web-based applications (Basecamp, Campfire, Backpack, Writeboard, Ta-da List), and Ruby on Rails, an open-source web application framework, in just two years with no outside funding, no debt, and only 7 people (distributed across 7 time zones). Over 500,000 people around the world use these applications to get things done. Now you can find out how they did it and how you can do it too. It's not as hard as you think if you Get Real.
Reviews with the most likes.
You could read this in about an hour, it's on their website in PDF form for free, I wouldn't recommend paying for it since they openly distribute the free version.
I love Basecamp and their corporate philosophy, this book is sort of a Cliff Notes version of Basecamp (formerly 37 Signal's history). The book was written in 2006 or 2007 so a lot has changed with Basecamp and the industry as a whole since then but it's still a great guide on how to create a lean, humanistic corporate culture.
Why I only gave it 3 stars: I wish it was longer with more detail.