{"id":712,"date":"2009-02-07T20:15:38","date_gmt":"2009-02-08T00:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.red-sweater.com\/blog\/?p=712"},"modified":"2009-02-08T02:23:54","modified_gmt":"2009-02-08T06:23:54","slug":"random-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/712\/random-reality","title":{"rendered":"Random Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re a software developer or web-savvy businessperson, you&#8217;ve probably heard of 37 Signals&#8217;s famous book, <a href=\"http:\/\/gettingreal.37signals.com\/\">Getting Real<\/a>, which aims to pass on some of the company&#8217;s wisdom about how to build and market relatively simple end-user applications. The book is aimed primarily at developers of web applications, expected considering the web is 37 Signals&#8217;s forte, but I think it contains pearls of wisdom that anybody working in the software industry could benefit from reading and considering.<\/p>\n<p>\nI have read bits and pieces of the book, but I doubt I have read the whole thing. The short essays are perfect for a quick browse here and there.  Often, I&#8217;ll navigate to the site in order to read just a few tidbits, before moving on with my day&#8217;s work.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nBut I haven&#8217;t read much of the book in a long time. When I was recently reminded of it by Manton Reece&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.manton.org\/2009\/02\/better.html\">reference in his blog<\/a>, I thought to myself, yes! I should read some more Getting Real! But again, the struggle of being faced with all those bite-sized morsels, and having to choose which to delve in to.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nMy solution? The <a href='javascript:var%20chapterPaths%20=%20new%20Array(\"ch01_What_is_Getting_Real.php\",\"ch01_About_37signals.php\",\"ch01_Caveats_disclaimers_and_other_preemptive_strikes.php\",\"ch02_Build_Less.php\",\"ch02_Whats_Your_Problem.php\",\"ch02_Fund_Yourself.php\",\"ch02_Fix_Time_and_Budget_Flex_Scope.php\",\"ch02_Have_an_Enemy.php\",\"ch02_It_Shouldnt_be_a_Chore.php\",\"ch03_Less_Mass.php\",\"ch03_Lower_Your_Cost_of_Change.php\",\"ch03_The_Three_Musketeers.php\",\"ch03_Embrace_Constraints.php\",\"ch03_Be_Yourself.php\",\"ch04_Whats_the_Big_Idea.php\",\"ch04_Ignore_Details_Early_On.php\",\"ch04_Its_a_Problem_When_Its_a_Problem.php\",\"ch04_Hire_the_Right_Customers.php\",\"ch04_Scale_Later.php\",\"ch04_Make_Opinionated_Software.php\",\"ch05_Half_Not_Half_Assed.php\",\"ch05_It_Just_Doesnt_Matter.php\",\"ch05_Start_With_No.php\",\"ch05_Hidden_Costs.php\",\"ch05_Can_You_Handle_It.php\",\"ch05_Human_Solutions.php\",\"ch05_Forget_Feature_Requests.php\",\"ch05_Hold_the_Mayo.php\",\"ch06_Race_to_Running_Software.php\",\"ch06_Rinse_and_Repeat.php\",\"ch06_From_Idea_to_Implementation.php\",\"ch06_Avoid_Preferences.php\",\"ch06_Done.php\",\"ch06_Test_in_the_Wild.php\",\"ch06_Shrink_Your_Time.php\",\"ch07_Unity.php\",\"ch07_Alone_Time.php\",\"ch07_Meetings_Are_Toxic.php\",\"ch07_Seek_and_Celebrate_Small_Victories.php\",\"ch08_Hire_Less_and_Hire_Later.php\",\"ch08_Kick_the_Tires.php\",\"ch08_Actions_Not_Words.php\",\"ch08_Get_Well_Rounded_Individuals.php\",\"ch08_You_Cant_Fake_Enthusiasm.php\",\"ch08_Wordsmiths.php\",\"ch09_Interface_First.php\",\"ch09_Epicenter_Design.php\",\"ch09_Three_State_Solution.php\",\"ch09_The_Blank_Slate.php\",\"ch09_Get_Defensive.php\",\"ch09_Context_Over_Consistency.php\",\"ch09_Copywriting_is_Interface_Design.php\",\"ch09_One_Interface.php\",\"ch10_Less_Software.php\",\"ch10_Optimize_for_Happiness.php\",\"ch10_Code_Speaks.php\",\"ch10_Manage_Debt.php\",\"ch10_Open_Doors.php\",\"ch11_Theres_Nothing_Functional_about_a_Functional_Spec.php\",\"ch11_Dont_Do_Dead_Documents.php\",\"ch11_Tell_Me_a_Quick_Story.php\",\"ch11_Use_Real_Words.php\",\"ch11_Personify_Your_Product.php\",\"ch12_Free_Samples.php\",\"ch12_Easy_On_Easy_Off.php\",\"ch12_Silly_Rabbit_Tricks_are_for_Kids.php\",\"ch12_A_Softer_Bullet.php\",\"ch13_Hollywood_Launch.php\",\"ch13_A_Powerful_Promo_Site.php\",\"ch13_Ride_the_Blog_Wave.php\",\"ch13_Solicit_Early.php\",\"ch13_Promote_Through_Education.php\",\"ch13_Feature_Food.php\",\"ch13_Track_Your_Logs.php\",\"ch13_Inline_Upsell.php\",\"ch13_Name_Hook.php\",\"ch14_Feel_The_Pain.php\",\"ch14_Zero_Training.php\",\"ch14_Answer_Quick.php\",\"ch14_Tough_Love.php\",\"ch14_In_Fine_Forum.php\",\"ch14_Publicize_Your_Screwups.php\",\"ch15_One_Month_Tuneup.php\",\"ch15_Keep_the_Posts_Coming.php\",\"ch15_Better_Not_Beta.php\",\"ch15_All_Bugs_Are_Not_Created_Equal.php\",\"ch15_Ride_Out_the_Storm.php\",\"ch15_Keep_Up_With_the_Joneses.php\",\"ch15_Beware_the_Bloat_Monster.php\",\"ch15_Go_With_the_Flow.php\",\"ch16_Start_Your_Engines.php\",\"ch16_37signals_Resources.php\");randomPath%20=%20chapterPaths[Math.floor(Math.random()*chapterPaths.length)];randomChapterURL%20=%20\"http:\/\/gettingreal.37signals.com\/\"%20+%20randomPath;document.location%20=%20randomChapterURL;'>Random Reality<\/a> bookmarklet.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nJust drag the link above directly to your bookmark toolbar. Now when you are in the mood to &#8220;get real,&#8221; you can jump to a random essay from the book at the click of a button. If you feel like reading more of the book, just click the bookmark again.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nOf course, if you love browsing the book, it might make even more sense to <a href=\"https:\/\/gettingreal.37signals.com\/purchases\/new\">buy a copy<\/a> in PDF or paper format. But even if you own a copy and have read through it, you might enjoy the occasional dose of random reality in your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re a software developer or web-savvy businessperson, you&#8217;ve probably heard of 37 Signals&#8217;s famous book, Getting Real, which aims to pass on some of the company&#8217;s wisdom about how to build and market relatively simple end-user applications. The book is aimed primarily at developers of web applications, expected considering the web is 37 Signals&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,34,43,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-links","category-marketing","category-programming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":738,"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions\/738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}