I can't really figure out why, but something about Joel bothers me when I read/watch his stuff. Does anyone have a similar experience? I can't think of any good reason why this would be the case, he is obviously a smart guy, StackOverflow is brilliant. Maybe it's the tone of how he writes stuff or maybe it's because he seems to be a Microsoft sympathizer, neither of which are good reasons.
It's totally irrational but I get that gut feeling a lot with him. Am I the only one? Any other ideas why?
I read his stuff occasionally and appreciate it when he makes a good point, which he does sometimes. At the same time, I feel a consistent smugness in what he writes. It's messages like "every other job in the city sucked" (and the implication that they still do) versus "FogBuz rocks", and "I don't want to live in 'lesser cities' [than New York]".()
There's also a lack of substance to much of his writing. Aeron chairs are what makes FogBuz great? Really? That's a pretty low bar to match. To me, a great company has purpose, vision, and smart-but-zero-ego people who enjoy working together to produce something that will actually make a difference in the world. Give me those things and I'll sit on a milk crate.
() (And, for the record, I live in NYC myself and think it's a pretty awesome city.)
It's totally irrational but I get that gut feeling a lot with him. Am I the only one? Any other ideas why?