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You are likely right. Yet I wonder if a) Fog Creek had that high a profile when they put that advice into practice, and if not... b) The people that Fog Cree

You are likely right. Yet I wonder if a) Fog Creek had that high a profile when they put that advice into practice, and if not... b) The people that Fog Creek had such a high profile among included its prospective/repeat customers (as opposed to just non-customer fellow software developers.)

hermitcrab 7y ago
a) Yes. Joel had a very well written blog that was very popular with developers (I miss your blog Joel!). b) Yes. Back then his customers were developers.
netcan 7y ago
I believe Fog Creek had (at the time of writing this) already been in both situations at various points. Joel wasn't famous at the start. But the context of this statement isn't really related to fresh startups. it's aimed at software companies... presumably with existing customers and revenue. And yes, it's true that there are lots of exceptions at any level... a big press score or whatnot. The underlying point is solid though, imo. Most software companies best strategy is to make more/better software for their customers to buy/use. Shiny, big, spiky "tactical wins" are neither necessary nor sufficient. They just loom large in our narration of events.