I don't understand all the down votes. This article, for instance, links from the Joel On Software home page. There's no reason to post it here.
It's an answer to the thread about Mark Zuckerberg still writing code, where TechCrunch asked if Bill Gates still coded 5 years after Microsoft was founded. That's why it was (re)posted.
Also, some of us come to know Joel a little too late. Is great to to be pointed up to these great articles and I'm amazed how relevant they seem even today.