David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH)

Well, you can either have money, enjoyment, family, or health.

Pick one.

What?

Why do we have to give up all of this?

Now...

Again, I'm not saying there aren't moments in life where you can sprint.

But I am saying if that sprint turns into a decade, you're going to pay for it.

And you're going to pay for it in ways I've seen time and again seem like a very bad trade.

That even if it works, and by the way, most of the time it does not.

Most of the time startups go bust.

Most of the time people spend five, seven years on something that does not pan out.

And they don't get the payout.

And then they just sit with regret of like, what the fuck happened to my 20s?

Early on, Jason and I basically made the pact that working together was not going to lead to that kind of regret.

That we were going to allow ourselves and each other to build a whole life outside of work.

And the fact that that worked is something I feel...

is almost like forbidden knowledge.

Certainly in technology circles in the US, it's something that we've tried to champion for 20 years and we still get slacked for.

Just two days ago, I had another Twitter beef with someone saying like, oh, well, okay, maybe it worked, but you didn't turn into Atlassian, so you're a failure.

Basecamp isn't Jira, so why are you even bothering?