I agree. However, a post like this has multiple purposes, non-the-least is a dictum about their culture and what they value.

Yes. This was a 'please come join us' post. I've been seeing more and more of these lately. Formula:

   * cool tech
   * long format
   * looks good
   * describe interesting problems
   * end with link to careers page

I like this format. It feels like watching a good advertisement instead of one that just screams "BUY!". It's great because at the end of the day, there's some education, and something to be taken away. Even if that thing is a write up you can show your boss to convince her that it's a good idea to pick up some of these practices. There's some value at the end of the day so yeyy :D.

And honestly, I'd love to work for a team like this. I'm starving for a team that'll kick my ass and let me learn what it's like to work with the best practices.

Not that what I do right now is bad. Education wise though it's fairly stagnant.

Expect to continue seeing more of it.

It works, of course.

But it's also much less obnoxious than previous methods, so it also generates less bad will in the community.

Yes. I think there might be a business in there somewhere, as I wrote on my blog a year ago: http://www.mooreds.com/wordpress/archives/1502

> but it would have been nice to see some real metric instead of some napkin graphs

That's roughly why software engineering isn't really engineering. We're too cool for quantification. We feel that we don't need to give solid metrics to justify investment on what we think is cool. But, boy, if management asks us something that we don't like, then they'll have to handle solid and quantifiable evidence on the utility of it.