You are young, my son, and, as the years go by, time will change and even
reverse many of your present opinions. Refrain therefore awhile from setting
yourself up as a judge of the highest matters. 
Plato, Dialogues, Theatetus
Greek author & philosopher in Athens (427 BC – 347 BC)

Much has been said recently about Joel Spolsky’s comments on ruby, wasabi and
performance.  As with most blogs I read, I take Joel with a grain of salt.
I personally think his views on hiring are on the fringes of insanity,
but maybe I’m just jealous.  After all, I’m one of those heathens who is
self-taught with no CS degree.    I’ve managed to work pretty successfully
in this field for something close to 12 years now and my lack of degree has
come up exactly once in all that time.

We need to remember that Joel is a normal guy like the rest of us.  Yes, he
worked at Microsoft.  Yes he has a relatively successful software development
company with some cool products.  Hell, he even has an entry in Wikipedia.
Finally, yes, he has strong opinions on a variety of topics, but he is
certainly not the be-all, end-all authority on software development and how to
run a software development company.

Common sense dictates that what works for him may not (and probably won’t) work
for others.  It’s great that he developed a tool that lets his developers write
code once and compiles down to multiple targets.  Maybe he didn’t choose the
best platform to start with, but c’mon, it’s still kinda cool, isn’t it?  Is it
the right approach for everyone?  No.  Is using Ruby / Ruby On Rails the right
approach for everyone?  Nope.

37signals has great success using Ruby/RoR.  They have several successful products
and a loyal following.  They also, like Joel, exhibit something of an attitude
when it comes to software development.  Again, so what?  “Getting Real” may
work for some people, but without a doubt, BDUF works extremely well for others
(although I personally have yet to see a successful BDUF project). 

Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have the success of Fog Creek or 37signals,
but I certainly don’t have to follow their specific recipes to have it.  I can
take a bit from here, a bit from there and some from my own experiences.

What’s the point of all this?  I guess it’s that people shouldn’t get so worked up
about this stuff.  If Joel wants to plant a stake in the ground and say his way
is “the way”, who cares?  If 37signals says you need to start developing screens
first, so what? 

Move on.  Do what works for you and stop worrying about the so-called “rockstars”.