In typical 37signals fashion, the wisdom in these pages is edgy yet

Four-letter words
There are four-letter words you should never use in business. They're not
fuck or shit. They're need, must, can't, easy, just, only, and fast. These words
get in the way of healthy communication. They are red flags that introduce
animosity, torpedo good discussions, and cause projects to be late.
When you use these four-letter words, you create a black-and-white
situation. But the truth is rarely black and white. So people get upset and
problems ensue. Tension and conflict are injected unnecessarily.
Here's what's wrong with some of them:
Need. Very few things actually need to get done. Instead of saying
"need," you're better off saying "maybe" or "What do you think about
this?" or "How does this sound?" or "Do you think we could get away
with that?"
Can't. When you say "can't," you probably can. Sometimes there are
even opposing can'ts: "We can't launch it like that, because it's not quite
right" versus "We can't spend any more time on this because we have to
launch." Both of those statements can't be true. Or wait a minute, can
they?
Easy. Easy is a word that's used to describe other people's jobs. "That
should be easy for you to do, right?" But notice how rarely people
describe their own tasks as easy. For you, it's "Let me look into it"--but
for others, it's "Get it done."
These four-letter words often pop up during debates (and also watch out
for their cousins: everyone, no one, always, and never). Once uttered, they
make it tough to find a solution. They box you into a corner by pitting two
absolutes against each other. That's when head-butting occurs. You squeeze
out any middle ground.

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And these words are especially dangerous when you string them
together: "We need to add this feature now. We can't launch without this
feature. Everyone wants it. It's only one little thing so it will be easy. You
should be able to get it in there fast!" Only thirty-six words, but a hundred
assumptions. That's a recipe for disaster.

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ASAP is poison
Stop saying ASAP. We get it. It's implied. Everyone wants things done as
soon as they can be done.
When you turn into one of these people who adds ASAP to the end of
every request, you're saying everything is high priority. And when
everything is high priority, nothing is. (Funny how everything is a top
priority until you actually have to prioritize things.)
ASAP is inflationary. It devalues any request that doesn't say ASAP.
Before you know it, the only way to get anything done is by putting the
ASAP sticker on it.
Most things just don't warrant that kind of hysteria. If a task doesn't get
done this very instant, nobody is going to die. Nobody's going to lose their
job. It won't cost the company a ton of money. What it will do is create
artificial stress, which leads to burnout and worse.
So reserve your use of emergency language for true emergencies. The
kind where there are direct, measurable consequences to inaction. For
everything else, chill out.

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