My review of REWORK; surprisingly good book. Read it.

I’ll admit to have being a little bit hostile towards REWORK in the beginning; I avoided the book like the plague, thinking it was yet another attempt for someone to cash in on a reputation they (rightly or otherwise) have built for themselves.

I ended it up on my Nook only because I wanted to test the integration with the B&N Bookstore on the device.

I won’t say I feel I was entirely wrong with my initial opinion about the book, its a very good marketing ploy that promotes 37signals all the way through; however where I was wrong was in thinking that this book is not useful.

Once you get past the (rather expected) boastful, attitude filled writing style, you are left in no doubt that the book is written by knowledgeable people.

It (rather heavy handedly at times) makes the point that simple is best, getting things done quickly is sometimes better than getting them done well, that saying ‘no’ is your best friend. It’s a book you and your boss should read, especially if you’re having trouble selling doing things the Agile way to him / her.

It takes common well established business notions like learning from failure and working all hours and turns them on their head with very well reasoned counter-arguments. It does really go out of its way (with relevant citations from real successful businesses) to prove that you can ‘think different’ and succeed.

It left me a little more inspired about the work I do and the ideas for products and services I had, and it helped convince me that it’s not too risky or too hard to wing it and strike out.

It was refreshing, if not high literature. I’d recommend anyone who is in two minds about buying it to pick up the eBook and give it a read.