But what's interesting is that Joel is pretty clearly making the point that he is the man responsible for making sure the "supporting roles" happen, allowing the programmers to assume allthe "prima donna" roles. In return, he gets to own the lion's share of the company and a commensurate share of the profits.
"instead of diverting to track B and talking about how to successfully structure a small to medium sized company (like his)."
Doesn't it make more sense for him to talk about the case of a small to medium sized company, which he actually knows something about?
I think, though, it isn't too hard to extrapolate the lesson for startups: if you are a programmer who formerly worked for a small to medium sized company, you suddenly need to figure out on your own how to do the jobs of that other 80% of the people at your company were doing. In fact, elsewhere I think Joel has made exactly the point that when he started Fog Creek he and his co-founder were the ones doing all of those tasks, in addition to the coding.
"instead of diverting to track B and talking about how to successfully structure a small to medium sized company (like his)."
Doesn't it make more sense for him to talk about the case of a small to medium sized company, which he actually knows something about?
I think, though, it isn't too hard to extrapolate the lesson for startups: if you are a programmer who formerly worked for a small to medium sized company, you suddenly need to figure out on your own how to do the jobs of that other 80% of the people at your company were doing. In fact, elsewhere I think Joel has made exactly the point that when he started Fog Creek he and his co-founder were the ones doing all of those tasks, in addition to the coding.