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Work Less, Get More Done: Analytics For Maximizing Productivity: MicroISV on a Shoestring

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Working harder is a particularly bad idea for startups because you are likely competing with people with resources which, relative to yours, are infinite. I compete with several educational publishers who employ tens of thousands. Paras competes with Google. Our competitors have more man-hours in a week than we’ll have in the next decade. Engaging them on those terms is madness.
It is also set so that it gets cached for 24 hours, so that the monkey-brain WoW playing scrolling-numbers-are-dopamine-cast-into-integers side of me can’t get fascinated into sitting on the page and hitting refresh all day.
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- You probably have something which could stand elimination in your business. If you’re using Lean Startup-style processes, you should find out which of your development efforts are being 100% wasted because your customers don’t want what you’re making. The solution to this is simple: stop that development.
- Worker Smarter, Not Harder. Then Go Home.
- “Working harder” is a poor strategy which your competitors can trivially replicate. Instead, spend some time measuring what tasks add value to your business and at what imputed wages. Outsource those tasks which are below your desired imputed wage, automate any task where appropriate, and simply don’t do things which don’t add value.
- We should work to live, not live to work, and maximizing what the economists call “leisure” and what I’d rather rebrand as “stuff of lasting importance” should be a major goal for our careers and businesses.

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Work Less, Get More Done: Analytics For Maximizing Productivity: MicroISV on a Shoestring