14 Quotes by David Heinemeier Hansson

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.

When you yet to do 100% of what somebody wants, you need a perfect match, and it's pretty rare that you have a perfect match between what you thought people needed and what they actually need. If you try instead to do 80 percent of what they need, there's a pretty good chance you'll hit a sweet spot.

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

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

You’re better off with a kick-ass half than a half-assed whole.

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

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.

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?’

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.