"Backlogs make you feel guilty." – Jason Fried
Published: 2019-08-15 15:39:08

---
title: "Backlogs make you feel guilty." – Jason Fried
published: true
tags: 
canonical_url: https://share.transistor.fm/s/dd0dc644
---

{% youtube 4ZGk1YnNFps %}

Justin and Jon are joined by Jason Fried to talk about:

- The philosophy behind their new book [Shape Up](https://basecamp.com/shapeup).
- Does Basecamp's approach to 6-week cycles differ for smaller teams?
- "Long projects destroy morale. When things don't ship, you get frustrated." – Jason Fried
- Why projects ship late (it's human nature).
- Why work is like a hill.
- How they make product decisions at Basecamp.
- How do you know what you should work on next?
- Why they don't believe in backlogs.
- "That feeling of 'there's nothing to do, but there's everything to do' shouldn't be happening." – Jason Fried
- "You need a system at some point. When you have two people, you can hack your way to anything. But as soon as you grow, you'll need a system." – Jason Fried
- "What we have is not a perfect system. And even if it was, we don't execute these things perfectly." – Jason Fried

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# Show notes:

- [Jon's launch announcement tweet](https://twitter.com/jonbuda/status/1025429575281594369) (from 2018).
- Read Basecamp's new book [Shape Up](https://basecamp.com/shapeup).
- Jason Fried commented on [this Linkedin post](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/justinijackson_business-bootstrapping-startup-activity-6557467478967021568-RHV5).
- [Hill charts](https://basecamp.com/shapeup/3.4-chapter-12#work-is-like-a-hill).
- Listen to Rework Podcast's "[Shape Up Roundtable](https://rework.fm/shape-up-roundtable/)."
- Derek Sivers' new article: [My old clothes don't fit](https://sivers.org/clothes)

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