The free book all entrepreneurs/web developers should read

One of the poster-boys for the Web2.0 world is 37Signals, a Chicago based software development firm. Their products are famous for being simple and easy to use, and as a company they've shown that you can grow mainstream while staying private with a small number of people (many of whom collaborate remotely).

They're also very adept at giving back to the web development community. They released Ruby on Rails, the hottest new open-source development framework, and they wrote Getting Real, a book about what it takes to build successful web applications. It costs money to buy or download the book, but you can read it FREE online.

I just finished reading it for the second or third time. Like their products, it's a simple, easy, to-the point read that doesn't waste a word of space or a second of your time. As a company they've managed to challenge conventional wisdom and create a brilliant philosophy of really only doing what's necessary and nothing more.

I especially like giving it a read-through while I'm in development and deployment of something new (the price guide) to make sure that I'm only doing and including what's truly necessary and nothing more.

I can't imagine a better way to spend your time as a YE than to read Getting Real - you'll save yourself more headaches and stress than you can imagine.