Jason Fried Quotes

On the simplest level, telecommuting makes it harder for people to have the kinds of informal interactions that are crucial to the way knowledge moves through an organization. The role that hallway chat plays in driving new ideas has become a cliche of business writing, but that doesn't make it less true.

For me, at the end of the day, I want to be judged for my work, not for what I've been through and past experiences, necessarily.

I'll be judged on the body of work and not the popularity of any one decision.

I work from home a lot. I think I get as much work done at the office as at home, and I'm used to working with people who don't work in the office. I don't really care where they are, even if they're on a banana leaf somewhere. If they deliver their work, I am completely fine. I don't need someone sitting at their desk to produce.

In Italy they judge you above all on your efficiency.

Sacks shouldn't be the only thing that determines if you had a good year.

Numerous studies show that people derive more personal satisfaction and are more productive when they engage at a deeper level. In the past, we did that through live, in-person interactions, but it's more of a challenge for distributed workforces to maintain that level of engagement.

The Harvard Business Review recently had an article called 'The Human Moment,' about how to make real contact with a person at work: ... The fundamental thing you have to do is turn off your BlackBerry, close your laptop, end your daydream and pay full attention to the person.

During the playoffs, I tone down the Internet usage.

I realized I wasn't a good employee because I was too busy listening to people's personal problems to do work.

I don't think it's good to be a distraction to your team.

At Ford, one of the behaviors is you listen, and you don't have side conversations during the meeting. It's just so important everybody stays focused.

The office during the day has become the last place people want to be when they really want to get work done. In fact, offices have become interruption factories.

One of the secret benefits of using remote workers is that the work itself becomes the yardstick to judge someone's performance.

It may be irrational, but if you're local, the client often feels that, if worse comes to worst, they can knock on your door. They 'know where you live.' But when you're remote, they're going to be more suspicious when phone calls go unreturned or emails keep getting 'lost.' Stay on top of communications, and you'll reap the benefits.

Everybody manages differently and as far as I'm concerned the results are the only thing that counts.

I've had five managers, and I've played with all of them.

The surprising question we get is, 'How many people telecommute at Google?' And our answer is, 'As few as possible.'

Distributed workforces are most likely to succeed if their culture is one that values and prioritizes face-to-face communications.

A lot of people are counting on Zoom.

It's important that I work with good people.

If you ask people where they go when they really need to get work done, very few will respond 'the office.' If they do say the office, they'll include a qualifier such as 'super-early in the morning before anyone gets in,' or 'I stay late at night after everyone's left,' or 'I sneak in on the weekend.'

Measuring how hard your team is working by counting the number of hours they work or what time they get in and leave is how amateurs run companies.

When I write, I try to turn my Internet off so I can't procrastinate through the Internet, but then I just get deeply involved in whatever I have just on my computer.

I don't want to work with a person just to have someone there.