Time off isn’t much of a benefit if it can be taken right back. That’s more like a shitty loan with terrible terms. Plus interest. And worries. Screw that.

Following group chat at work is like being in an all-day meeting with random participants and no agenda. It’s completely exhausting.

Yet employees’ time and attention are among the scarcest resources we have.

what happens over and over again is that people who start on long hours simply stay on long hours.

We don’t pay traditional bonuses at Basecamp, either, so our salaries are benchmarked against other companies’ salaries plus bonus packages.

When you get a bunch of people in a room under the assumption that consensus is the only way out again, you’re in for a war of attrition. Whoever can keep arguing the longest stands the best chance of winning.

It’s easier to fuck up something that’s working well than it is to genuinely improve it.

Balance is give and take. The typical corporate give-and-take is that life gives and work takes. If it’s easier for work to claim a Sunday than for life to borrow a Thursday, there ain’t no balance.

If you can’t fit everything you want to do within 40 hours per week, you need to get better at picking what to do, not work longer hours. Most of what we think we have to do, we don’t have to do at all. It’s a choice, and often it’s a poor one.