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What Jason Fried Learned from 26 Years of Building Great Products

Overview

Shownote

Highlights

Transcript

Chapters

Pins

What Jason Fried Learned from 26 Years of Building Great Products

AI & I

Nov 05
AI & I

AI & I

Nov 05
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

37signals makes tens of millions in profit every year but ⁠Jason Fried⁠ isn’t all that interested in running a business. Instead, he cares most about making great products—like ⁠Basecamp⁠, ⁠HEY⁠, and ⁠Ruby on Rails⁠—products that are centered around a sin...

Highlights

Building products with soul isn't about chasing trends or scaling at all costs—it's about crafting something whole, where every detail serves a singular vision. Jason Fried, after decades of leading 37signals, reflects on what it means to create not just functional software, but meaningful experiences rooted in coherence and authenticity.
07:52
Handmade buildings have a soul that mainstream architecture often lacks
19:59
Programming has fundamentally changed in the last three months.
28:46
Luck and timing play a significant role in career success.
29:59
Many of my career opportunities came from random chance encounters.
32:49
AI enables more people to create independently through natural language interaction.
45:20
Being yourself is the foundation of a stable business.
47:30
Spending half my time writing again transformed my effectiveness as a CEO
51:41
A truly whole product feels spiritual — removing any part breaks its essence

Chapters

Start
00:00
Introduction
00:32
What architecture, watches, and cars teach us about software
02:06
How Jason thinks AI plays into product-building
10:54
How developers at 37signals use AI
20:58
Jason’s biggest realization after 26 years of running 37signals
25:47
Where Jason thinks luck shaped his career
29:58
What Jason would do if he were graduated into the AI boom
32:41
Dan asks for advice on running a non-traditional company like Every
37:22
Why staying true to yourself is the only way to build something lasting
46:39
Wholeness as the north star for building products—and companies
49:38

Transcript

Jason Fried: Running a business is not that interesting to me. I really fancy myself more as someone who makes products. It's like you just get a feel for things that are a whole, a single piece, a single idea, a single concept. Executed so beautifully. Yo...