I still can't wrap my head around how Joel Spolsky, of all people, became such an influential voice in software, especially considering that every single thing

I still can't wrap my head around how Joel Spolsky, of all people, became such an influential voice in software, especially considering that every single thing he's ever written has been an opinion piece (and you know what they say about opinions...) He went to Yale and worked for Microsoft - both of which, in fairness, eclipse any of my own accomplishments - but there are a LOT of people who've done that and then some.