I recently spoke with David Heinemeier Hansson who’s best known as the creator of Ruby on Rails and the Founder and CTO of Basecamp. He also wrote two best selling books, Rework and Remote. In addition to lighting it up in the business world he’s also a Le Mans & WEC class-winning racing driver.
In this interview David shares six tips that helped him become great at what he does:
Pick a domain you’re passionate about that has depth
It’s gives your brain the motivation to keep going. Here’s David:
Go deep. Then go deeper.
Don’t be content with making something work. Be enamored with how it works:
Repurpose ideas
Repurpose ideas you learn about in other ecosystems:
Feedback keeps you going
Here’s DHH on how quick feedback loops helped him gradually improve his racing skills:
Practice deliberately
If you try to get better everywhere, you’re not going to get better anywhere:
Embrace the suck
It’s when you’re the worst that you make the most progress: