<devilsadvocate>

I don't doubt that what you depict is true, at least to some extent, but you are basically preaching to the choir here.

There is a growing literature (e.g. Eric Raymond, Paul Graham) in praise of the "hacker ethos," casting the hacker as a paladin of excellence surrounded by an ocean of mediocrity. Of course, hackers and hacker-wannabes lap up the stuff, but I think such writings (which I find vaguely reminiscent of Ayn Rand's fables) say little that is actually constructive or practical. All they do is give the "beleaguered IT guy/gal" some hidden reserve of self-justification to draw from during his/her disagreements with management.

I like reading Joel Spolsky because he is a bit of a contrarian in this respect (and a few other ones). Even though he's a programmer himself (or maybe I should write "former programmer, now manager"), he doesn't fall for this blanket adoration of "The Hacker." It's not that he's entirely blind to some of the issues you bring up, but he seems just as likely to see foibles in programmers as to see them in managers:

So now, you have your own office (instead of sharing a cubicle with The Summer Intern Who Never Left), and you have to fill out those biannual performance reviews (instead of ruining your eyesight staring happily into a CRT all day), that is, when you're not wasting time dealing with the bizarre demands of prima donna programmers, back-slapping sales guys, those creative "UI designers" (who were hired as graphic designers, for Pete's sake) who want shiny OK/Cancel buttons that reflect, I mean, what's the RGB value for "reflective?" And dealing with inane questions from the senior VP who learned everything he knows about software from an article in Delta Airlines In-flight Magazine. "Why don't we use Java instead of Oracle? I heard it's more unified."

That last line kills me, but lines like "ruining your eyesight staring happily into a CRT all day" and "prima donna programmers" are a clear sign that this guy is not out to stroke anyone's ego. I don't always agree with Spolsky (in particular, I think he gives Microsoft too much of the benefit of the doubt), but I find his skeptical voice to be a refreshingly down-to-earth alternative to the romanticism of the thriving hacker fan press.

</devilsadvocate>

Update: Oops, I neglected to cite the source for the Spolsky quote. It's from p. xiii of his book Joel on software.

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