作者：Zongwei Zhou | 周纵苇
邮箱：zongweiz@asu.edu
微博：@MrGiovanni

We cut this book in half between the next-to-last and final draft. From 57,000 words to about 27,000 words. Trust us, it's better for it.

Book Reviews

[1] 88 tips for business – Rework reworked (a reminder list)
[2] 十分钟读完《Rework》

Make a dent in the universe.

To do great work, you need to feel that you're making a difference. That you're putting a meaningful dent in the universe. That you're part of something important.

This doesn't mean you need to find the cure for cancer. It's just that your efforts need to feel valuable. You want your customers to say, "This makes my life better." You want to feel that if you stopped doing what you do, people would notice.

You should feel an urgency about this too. You don't have forever. This is your life's work. Do you want to build just another me-too product or do you want to shake things up? What you do is your legacy. Don't sit around and wait for someone else to make the change you want to see. And don't think it takes a huge team to make that difference either.

If you're going to do something, do something that matters. These little guys came out of nowhere and destroyed old models that had been around for decades. You can do the same in your industry.

Draw a line in the sand

When you don't know what you believe, everything becomes an argument. Everything is debatable. But when you stand for something, decisions are obvious.

Standing for something isn't just about writing it down. It's about believing and living it. I know the difference between genuine affection and a robot that's programmed to say nice things.

Less is a good thing

See how far you can get with what you have.

Build half a product, not a half-assed product

You just can't do everything you want to do and do it well. You have limited time, resource, ability, and focus. It's hard enough to do one thing right.

Lots of things get better as they get shorter. So start chopping. Getting to great start by cutting out stuff that's merely good.

Ignore the details early on

Architects don't worry about which tiles go in the shower or which brand of dishwasher to install in the kitchen until after the floor plan is finalized. They know it's better to decide these details later.

You need to approach your idea the same way. Details make the difference. But getting infatuated with details too early leads to disagreement, meetings, and delays. You get lost in things that don't really matter. You waste time on decisions that are going to change anyway. So ignore the details -- for a while. Nail the basics first and worry about the specifics latter.

The big picture is all you should be worrying about in the beginning.

Detail just doesn't buy you anything in the early stages.

Besides, you often can't recognize the details that matter most until after you start building. That's when you see what needs more attention. You feel what's missing. And that's when you need to pay attention, not sooner.

Be a curator

What makes a museum great is the stuff that's not on the walls.

It's the stuff you leave out that matters.

不理解...
"一个收藏有所有艺术品的地方就不叫博物馆了，那是仓库。做好一个博物馆长，你要随时随地的想着简化掉一些非核心元素。"[2]

Quick wins

Momentum fuels motivation. It keeps you going. It drives you. Without it, you can't go anywhere. The way you biold momentum is by getting something done and then moving on to the next thing. No one like s to be stuck on a endless project with no finish line in sight. The longer something takes, the less likely it is that you're going to finish it.

Resumes are ridiculous

We all know resumes are a joke. They're exaggerations. They're filled with "action verbs" that don't mean anything. They list job titles and responsibilities that are vaguely accurate at best. and there's no way to verify most of what's on there. The whole thing is a farce.

Worst of all, they're too easy. Anyone can create a decent-enough resume. That's why half-assed applicants love them so much. They can shotgun out hundreds at a time to potential employers. It's another form of spam. They don't care about landing your job; they just care about landing any job.

So how do you find good candidates? First step: Check the cover letter. In a cover letter, you get actual communication instead of a list of skills, verbs, and years of irrelevance.

Trust your gut reaction. If the first paragraph sucks, the second has to work that much harder. If there's no hook in the first three, it's unlikely there's a match there.

Years of irrelevance

"Five year of experience required."

There's surprisingly little difference between a candidate with six months of experience and one with six years. The real difference comes from the individual's dedication, personality, and intelligence.

How long someone's been doing it is overrated. What matters is how well they've been doing it.