Yes, but it has one great takeaway quote that isn't self-serving:

> Watching nonprogrammers trying to run software companies is like watching someone who doesn't know how to surf trying to surf. Even if he has great advisers standing on the shore telling him what to do, he still falls off the board again and again. The cult of the M.B.A. likes to believe that you can run organizations that do things that you don't understand. But often, you can't.

This is true for any industry and it's a basic common sense for anyone but a recent MBA graduate without any real-world experience. There's nothing particularly great or insightful about this quote.

Not really: the practice of installing CEOs without a lot of industry experience is quite common (see Terry Semel). It might be obvious to you, but not to everyone.

Terry Semel had previous experience managing a large media company, which is what Yahoo wanted to become at the time he was hired.

Sure, but he didn't have experience as a technology executive, and couldn't call "bullshit" on technical claims made by people reporting to him -- which is Joel's argument for why this sort of CEO isn't often a good idea.

Not to veer off into politics, but the Bush administration would seem to be an existence proof that at least some part of your statement is incorrect. (Yes, I realize Bush has an MBA.) I've run into this attitude fairly often, and not just among MBAs.

Hum... tell that to the non-programmer Steve Jobs (who doesn´t have a MBA either).

Steve is actually quite technical, he just wasn't a world-class prodigy in engineering like Woz was.

Well, it _does_ help to have sociopathic tendencies. BTW did he ever acknowledge that the child he fathered was indeed his daughter? From the movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley" I got the idea he wouldn't even _acknowledge_ his child for years.

Must be great to have a dad like that.

I'd hope that you dont base your entire perception of a person on a movie.

That's a great case-in-point. He spent nearly his whole adult life running Apple, and he knows that company's business inside and out. He hired a Pepsi guy to take over as CEO, and things went poorly.

I find that Joel's essays are always a lot of fun to read. But complaints about his writing, not so much.

Joel's essays are just that. Essays. He continues to ignore any and all research in the area and pretends to know what he's doing. If I wanted a bunch of misinformed opinions I could just ask non-programmers.

Research would be great. Would you be so good as to recommend a peer-reviewed study of the efficacy of Bill Gates' management technique?

Meanwhile, anecdotes may be anecdotal but they're still more enjoyable than flamage.

So point out a couple for things where he is wrong, according to research? That would actually be interesting. Also, Joel does quote research results in his essays.

Hey, I finally got to use the "flag" button!

(In case the post above is deleted; it's about 1000 lines of "-" characters and nothing else.)

How much karma do you need to be able to flag?

It only appears for me next to the post when I click "link" and view a comment individually. I assume this is to prevent knee-jerk flagging. Not sure what the karma limit is.

For me I noticed the flag button for the first time when I reached around 150 karma points.

I can flag posts but not comments, and I'm at 118.

I do notice, however, that I see the flag link for your comment now that I've hit the reply button. I think this is a bug.

I find telling you to SHUT THE FUCK UP a lot of fun.