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

CHAPTER
 
PRODUCTIVITY

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Illusions of agreement
The business world is littered with dead documents that do nothing but
waste people's time. Reports no one reads, diagrams no one looks at, and
specs that never resemble the finished product. These things take forever to
make but only seconds to forget.
If you need to explain something, try getting real with it. Instead of
describing what something looks like, draw it. Instead of explaining what
something sounds like, hum it. Do everything you can to remove layers of
abstraction.
The problem with abstractions (like reports and documents) is that they
create illusions of agreement. A hundred people can read the same words,
but in their heads, they're imagining a hundred different things.
That's why you want to get to something real right away. That's when you
get true understanding. It's like when we read about characters in a book--
we each picture them differently in our heads. But when we actually see
people, we all know exactly what they look like.
When the team at Alaska Airlines wanted to build a new Airport of the
Future, they didn't rely on blueprints and sketches. They got a warehouse
and built mock-ups using cardboard boxes for podiums, kiosks, and belts.
The team then built a small prototype in Anchorage to test systems with real
passengers and employees. The design that resulted from this getting-real
process has significantly reduced wait times and increased agent
productivity.
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Widely admired furniture craftsman Sam Maloof felt it was impossible to
make a working drawing to show all the intricate and fine details that go
into a chair or stool. "Many times I do not know how a certain area is to be
done until I start working with a chisel, rasp, or whatever tool is needed for
that particular job," he said.
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That's the path we all should take. Get the chisel out and start making
something real. Anything else is just a distraction.

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Reasons to quit
It's easy to put your head down and just work on what you think needs to be
done. It's a lot harder to pull your head up and ask why. Here are some
important questions to ask yourself to ensure you're doing work that
matters: