A pleasant surprise

Rework, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson (Random House, $34.99):

I wasn’t quite sure was I was getting into when I picked up this book.

It had a picture of a screwed up piece of paper on the cover, along with the bold claim: Change the way you work forever.

Sure, the cynic in me thought here we go, another one of those books, full of happy clappy advice and weirdly American cliches.

However, I’m pleased to say I was wrong.

Oh yes, it is full of advice and most of it is pretty happy but it’s also pretty useful.

And it does force you to look at things differently.

Rework doesn’t give the standard business advice to write a business plan, study the competition and so on. Instead it says to ignore the competition, don’t waste time on meetings and paperwork (in fact, according to this book meetings are toxic. I’m inclined to agree).

It also says plans can be harmful and that workaholics aren’t good for your business.

Even if you don’t have a business, you’ll find this book an interesting (and fun) read: each thought or snippet of advice is short and to-the-point and actually makes a whole lot of sense.

This is one of those books that might make you take a long, hard look at how you do things.

It might even make you feel a little uncomfortable, because it will probably tell you you’re doing it all wrong.

But above all else, it will inspire you.

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