What can you tell about a book from its Table of Contents.

The e-book by blog darlings 37signals, Getting Real, is not new (Kazemi and many others have already chatted about it), but I somehow never found the time to actually read it until today. These are practices that you should have generally been using years ago, so none of it is a great surprise.

But what I thought was amazing was how the book itself stuck to the tenants of 37 signals -- it gets to the point, is light on detail, and even the table of contents makes for great quotes:

• "Build Less. Underdo your competition"
• "Rinse and Repeat. Work in iterations"
• "Fix Time and Budget, Flex Scope. Launch on time and on budget"
• "Less Mass. The leaner you are, the easier it is to change"
• "Embrace Constraints. Let limitations guide you to creative solutions"
• "Hire the Right Customers. Find the core market for your application and focus solely on them"

and my favorite -- what separates the fast moving lovable companies from the fast moving reckless one's:

• Half, Not Half-Assed. Build half a product, not a half-ass product

The next time your thinking about building something ancillary to your product, think about how even a table of contents can embody your brand.

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