What David Heinemeier Hansson thinks about management
Creator of Ruby on Rails, CTO of 37signals, and creator of Omarchy.
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.
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36 dated positions, 2021 to 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what David Heinemeier Hansson has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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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
- 4 weeks earlier
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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 27 in this recording
- 10 months earlier
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Their wordsGreat companies need bold, hands-on leaders who live and breathe the stuff they make or they'll eventually hollow out
- 8 days earlier
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Their wordsThat's what happens when there's a lack of leadership who actually care about quality, about customers, and about the product
↗Apple has no one left who can say noworld.hey.com 1st of 2 in this piece
- 6 weeks earlier
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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.
- 3 weeks earlier
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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
- 4 months earlier
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Their wordsit's ridiculous that the world's premier tech company is now run by a gerontocracy
↗Age is a problem at Appleworld.hey.com 1st of 2 in this piece
- 13 days earlier
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Their wordsBecause when there's someone at the top who actually gives a damn about cars, watches, bags, software, or whatever the hell the company makes, it shows up in a million value judgments that can't be quantified neatly on a spreadsheet
↗Beans and vibes in even measureworld.hey.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Our readingBusiness owners should lead based on good vibes and a long vision once the basics are right
Their wordsonce there's a bit of margin, you owe it to yourself to lean on that cushion and lead the business primarily on the basis of good vibes and a long vision
↗Beans and vibes in even measureworld.hey.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 11 months earlier
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Their wordsCutting them from the team would be an act of mercy, not cruelty
↗You're not guaranteed a spot on the teamworld.hey.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 4 weeks earlier
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Their wordsby trying your best to couch employee performance feedback in overly gentle language, you end up confusing the message
- 7 weeks earlier
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Our readingExcess managerial bandwidth is dangerous
Their wordsThere's nothing more dangerous than excess managerial bandwidth
↗The benefit of seniority ought to be bandwidth world.hey.com
- 5 months earlier
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Their wordsyou can't feedback your way out of that in any reasonable amount of time
↗You can't fix core competency with a stern conversationworld.hey.com
- 4 weeks earlier
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Their wordsthere really is a discrepancy of talent that leads to a discrepancy of competence
↗Not everyone can be the bestworld.hey.com 1st of 2 in this piece
- 2 weeks earlier
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Their wordsThe risk of succumbing to the rigor mortis of success is usually far greater than the risk of making a mistake by not considering and mitigating all possible bad outcomes up front
↗Don't lose your unreasonable sense of urgencyworld.hey.com 1st of 2 in this piece
- 7 weeks earlier
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Their wordsthere's a lot of evidence that people respond best to the kind of managers and leaders who come from the ranks of the most talented, capable individual contributors
↗When promotions become punishmentworld.hey.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 9 days earlier
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Their wordsThe greatest myth in management is that you can't manage what you don't measure
↗The luxury of working without metricsworld.hey.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsRare is the dull business you can turn into a sparkle by obsessing about the derivatives
↗The luxury of working without metricsworld.hey.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 3 months earlier
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Their wordsThe easiest way to mess up a good thing is to mess with it at all
- 7 weeks earlier
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Their wordsMaking that distance obvious immediately is a sign of respect
- 6 weeks earlier
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Their wordsthe best thing you can do for your team that you're responsible for is to leave them the hell alone
- 2 weeks earlier
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Their wordsOperating within your means, taking profits along the way, and aiming for a stable, long-term business is not just dismissed, but frowned upon
↗The bubble has popped for unprofitable software companiesworld.hey.com 1st of 2 in this piece
- 5 days earlier
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Their wordswe've repeatedly proven that it's possible to run at this pace sustainably, without constant overwork, undue stress, software defects, or other ill consequences
- 4 days earlier
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Their wordsEveryone deserves at least a few bad bosses in their career to teach them what not to do, illuminate what really matters to them, and hopefully endow them with a perspective on how they'd operate themselves if they ever got the chance
- 10 days earlier
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Our readingTwitter is poorly run
Their wordsWhat's worse is that this clown town could hardly be worse run than it currently is
- 5 months earlier
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Their wordsthe strategy of boundless accommodation isn't working well for anyone
- 9 days earlier
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Their wordsthe biggest risk of all is thinking that what worked yesterday is going to work tomorrow too
- 2 days earlier
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Our readingLegitimate power is wasted if not exercised
Their wordsLegitimate power drawn from competence and experience is wasted if not exercised
↗Everybody loses when legitimate power isn't exercisedworld.hey.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsJunior folks learn less and slower if they are not exposed to decisive action by people who know stuff and have seen stuff
↗Everybody loses when legitimate power isn't exercisedworld.hey.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 4 months earlier
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Their wordsmaking people of significantly varying competence work together - when it's not mediated by differences in seniority - is a struggle
↗The merit of hiring by meritworld.hey.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 4 days earlier
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Our readingMost SaaS businesses of our size and above should own their infrastructure rather than rent it
Their wordsBut hiring managers is hard! Much harder than hiring individual contributors who can be evaluated in large part on the strength of their individual work.
- 5 days earlier
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Their wordsTolerating dissent and discussion is a sign of strength, not weakness
- 3 months earlier
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Their wordsAsking people what they've worked on and what they intend to work on frequently and automatically gives the company a daily pulse of progress
↗How do you know what people have been working on?world.hey.com
- 5 weeks earlier
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Their wordsAgile was supposed to be liberating us from process, but its current incarnation doubled down on its alienation
↗No one wants to be a code monkeyworld.hey.com 1st of 2 in this piece
- 6 months earlier
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Their wordsIt's easy to commit to principles when they don't cost you anything
↗Apple in China: Privacy, principles, purses, and picklesworld.hey.com 1st of 3 in this piece
- 9 days earlier
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Their wordsWhen your company is no longer influenced much by the success of your new products, the people who end up running the show are the ads and data extraction people