David Heinemeier Hansson Quotes

#1. One pattern to help yourself fight the mad dash for the mirage of being done is to think of a good day's work. Look at the progress of the day towards the end and ask yourself: 'Have I done a good day's work?'

David Heinemeier Hansson

#2. It's a lot harder to pull your head up and ask why.

David Heinemeier Hansson

#3. My whole thing was, if I can put in 5 percent of the effort of somebody getting an A, and I can get a C minus, that's amazing," he explains. "It's certainly good enough, right? [Then] I can take the other 95 percent of the time and invest it in something I really care about.

David Heinemeier Hansson

#4. You're better off with a kick-ass half than a half-assed whole.

David Heinemeier Hansson

#5. If you're not working on your best idea right now, you're doing it wrong.

David Heinemeier Hansson

#6. If you can't figure out how to make money on three billion in revenue, when exactly will the profit magic be found? Ten billion? Fifty billion?

David Heinemeier Hansson

#7. There's nothing that will bring realism into your world as quickly as realizing that you're out of cash.

David Heinemeier Hansson

#8. Secret to productivity is not finding more time to do more stuff, but finding the strength to do less of the stuff that doesnt need doing.

David Heinemeier Hansson

#9. When sparks fly, some truly great ideas come to light.

David Heinemeier Hansson

#10. Nobody is an overnight success. Most overnight successes you see have been working at it for ten years.

David Heinemeier Hansson

#11. Most software has a tiny essence that justifies its existence, everything after that is wants and desires mistaken for needs and necessities.

David Heinemeier Hansson

#12. Workaholics don't actually accomplish more than nonworkaholics. They may claim to be perfectionists, but that just mean they're wasting time fixating on inconsequential details instead of moving on to the next task.

David Heinemeier Hansson