One point you (and a lot of people) are missing: Joel was the one who took the business risk of posting those ads. It may seem risk free in retrospect, but th

One point you (and a lot of people) are missing: Joel was the one who took the business risk of posting those ads. It may seem risk free in retrospect, but they didn't know that in advance. It could have pissed off all his software customers, cheapened and diminished his brand. It could have had technical problems and become a nightmare with people wrongly charged or spammed. Just about anything could have happened. Noah took no risk, he just suggested an idea. Joel paid him to implement the idea, he didn't go "above and beyond" in that sense. So in all this righteous speak of what is a "fair" reward for Noah, keep in mind that his contribution, vital though it was, is dwarfed by that which Joel had to make to enable it to be realized.