David Heinemeier Hansson

March 9, 2021

Keep HEY weird

We're planning the next cycle for HEY right now. As always, there's an almost unlimited number of things we could do. We've never been short on our own ideas, we've never been short on feature requests. That's software development!

But with HEY, the process of picking what to do next has a new important directive: Keep HEY weird. Keep it different. Keep it FUN! Not that Basecamp can't be weird or different or fun, but HEY can really live those attributes. So it should.

We've already publicly committed to doing custom domains for personal. In fact, we promised it before the end of last year, but it didn't happen for a number of reasons. We managed to ship send-as and custom domains for business, though. Anyway, we're late, it's due, so we're making it so.

And there's plenty of other backfill features, as we like to call them. The stuff you're just supposed to do. The things people will ask for.

But people don't ask for weird. They don't ask for different. They even rarely ask for fun. Practical? Yup. Configurable? Definitely. Life is more than just that, though. And HEY has to be.

When we just launched HEY World, I saw a fair number of "WE DIDN'T ASK FOR THIS / WHY DIDN'T YOU SPEND THE TIME ON X INSTEAD". And I get it. You have your own wishlist. You want that list done, preferably in the order of your personal priority.

That's why its our duty to stand up for weird/different/fun. Give it a seat at the planning table. And so we have. There's some kooky stuff on there for next cycle. We'll try to have some kooky stuff on for every cycle.

*chuckles*

About David Heinemeier Hansson

Made Basecamp and HEY for the underdogs as co-owner and CTO of 37signals. Created Ruby on Rails. Wrote REWORK, It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work, and REMOTE. Won at Le Mans as a racing driver. Fought the big tech monopolies as an antitrust advocate. Invested in Danish startups.