Getting Real: The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web… (2006)

An easy and useful read. It doesn't apply to web application but to all of our life. Select to what we really want to do and execute it. Don't need much document, meeting and so on, just focus and do it! ( )

Great read: easy, intelligent and to the point. The authors confidently present their own ideas about building and promoting web-based applications, using examples from their own company and products. They practice what they preach and have created entire line of products by following their own advice. The approach to just getting things done and minimizing (and even removing) formal and time-consuming processes, meetings and specifications is refreshing. ( )

an easy and quickly digestible read.
stay flexible and lean to accommodate for change.
focus on what is important.
innovation is saying yes to what is important, and no to a thousand things that are unimportant. ( )

An inspiring read about how small companies such as 37signals can compete against larger companies on the web. By working as a small agile team they can produce small, straightforward apps faster than most software giants. This new approach to web applications is the key to surviving as a small upstart company on the web. ( )

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.