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David Heinemeier Hansson

What David Heinemeier Hansson thinks about management

@dhh · 154 positions · 10 changes of mind

Creator of Ruby on Rails, CTO of 37signals, and creator of Omarchy.

Everything they publish, on ppll ↗

David Heinemeier Hansson did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

6 dated positions, 2025 to 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what David Heinemeier Hansson has said — not written or endorsed by them.

6 positions so far — this page is not yet offered to search engines.

  1. Our readingSoftware is product management, and those are the skills the agentic era rewards — skills that are not evenly distributed among programmers.

    Their wordsThe reason I say that is there's a lot of programmers who are not very good product managers. Software is product management. What should it do? Who should it do it for? How should it do it? How should it look? What are our priorities? What do we start with first? What does version one include? All of those skills are not easily or equally distributed across all programmers.

    ↗DHH: Future of Programming, AI, Agentic Engineering, Vibe Coding & Linux | Lex Fridman Podcast #501youtube.com 13th of 41 in this recording

    product management

    Interesting

  3. Our readingOverly prescriptive instructions make a coding agent worse, for the same reason a micromanaging boss makes a programmer worse.

    Their wordsit was actually being damaged by overly prescriptive humans. And any programmer who's had a pointy-haired boss knows exactly what that is like. When the boss walks into the room, doesn't know anything, starts telling you how to program, how to code. What do you do? You sulk. You write shittier code if you're mandated to do things that are against your better judgment. Why would an agent not be the same?

    ↗DHH: Future of Programming, AI, Agentic Engineering, Vibe Coding & Linux | Lex Fridman Podcast #501youtube.com 14th of 41 in this recording

    Interesting
  4. 4 weeks earlier

  5. Our readingPaying a third of the company six months' salary to leave after banning politics at work was the best money 37signals ever spent.

    Their wordsAnd it was the best money we've ever spent on anything related to culture, maybe anything at all. Of all the things that I bought, that peace of mind we bought with those payouts was just priceless.

    ↗DHH: How to Build a Profitable Company Without Losing Controlyoutube.com 15th of 15 in this recording

    politics

    Interesting
  6. 4 months earlier

  7. Our readingDesigners should find what the spec should be and build it in HTML and CSS themselves, not make a product manager's spec look pretty.

    Their wordsDesigners at 37 Signals are not just here to make a spec look pretty. They're here to find what the spec should be. They're product managers in many ways.

    ↗DHH’s new way of writing codeyoutube.com 4th of 20 in this recording

    CSSdesignproduct management

    Interesting
  8. 8 months earlier

  9. Our readingAn executive's empty calendar is a feature, not laziness: availability is what the job requires.

    Their wordsWide open calendars should not be seen as lazy, but as intentional availability.

    ↗Executives should be the least busy peopleworld.hey.com

    Interesting
  10. 3 weeks earlier

  11. Our readingEngineering managers are a necessary evil for when things break down; 37signals tried them for two years and went back to leaving programmers alone.

    Their wordsAnd after that I thought like, no, no, I was right. This was correct. We should not have had managers. Not every programmer needs a therapy session with an engineering manager every week.

    ↗DHH: Future of Programming, AI, Ruby on Rails, Productivity & Parenting | Lex Fridman Podcast #474youtube.com 19th of 36 in this recording

    Psychotherapy

    Interesting