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Build Less | Getting Real

basecamp.com · 218 words · saved by 1 readers

Heads up! This page uses features your browser doesn’t support. Try a modern browser like Firefox or Chrome for the best experience. CHAPTER 4: Next: What’s Your Problem? Conventional wisdom says that to beat your competitors you need to one-up them. If they have four features, you need five (or 15, or 25). If they’re spending x, you need to spend xx. If they have 20, you need 30. This sort of one-upping Cold War mentality is a dead-end. It’s an expensive, defensive, and paranoid way of building products. Defensive, paranoid companies can’t think ahead, they can only think behind. They don’t lead, they follow. If you want to build a company that follows, you might as well put down this book now. So what to do then? The answer is less. Do less than your competitors to beat them. Solve the simple problems and leave the hairy, difficult, nasty problems to everyone else. Instead of one-upping, try one-downing. Instead of outdoing, try underdoing. We’ll cover the concept of less throughout

Build Less | Getting Real sidebar#closeWithKey"> Heads up! This page uses features your browser doesn’t support. Try a modern browser like Firefox or Chrome for the best experience. sidebar#open" aria-label="Getting Real Table Of Contents"> Getting Real Chapter 4: Build Less Next: What’s Your Problem? sidebar#close mouseup->tweet#update input->tweet#update keydown->tweet#update scroll@window->tweet#update" data-bookmark-id="/gettingreal"> Underdo your competition Conventional wisdom says that to beat your competitors you need to one-up them. If they have four features, you need five (or 15, or

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