Minor correction: As of December 6th, Joel is no longer CEO of Fog Creek: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2016/12/06/anil-dash-is-the-new-ceo-of-fog-creek-softwa

Minor correction: As of December 6th, Joel is no longer CEO of Fog Creek: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2016/12/06/anil-dash-is-the-new-ceo-of-fog-creek-software/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2016/12/06/anil-dash-is-the-n... However, he is still CEO of Stack Overflow and has over 300 employees, if I were one of them I might be pretty concerned about his take on side projects as my employer. I think in all likelihood, Joel means the article as a warning to developers who think they have more freedom than they might actually, and he's probably quite permissive about side projects at SO, but I agree the article doesn't come across that way.