Joel on Software's RSS feed added

I just added Joel Spolsky's blog RSS to my sidebar. This wouldn't be a newsworthy event except that I really want to draw attention to his success. He's a software engineer now managing a software company (Fog Creek) which seems to make some pretty popular products.

He also has some really radical-sounding ideas on how to run a superb software company. Interestingly, most of those ideas boil down to the following arguments:

• Make products people want.
• Don't be cheap -- spend what you need to spend, no less (but no more).
• Treat your customers like friends, not enemies.

Deceptively simple, that last one. It's especially hard to achieve in a B2B environment, as clients often feel like they need to constantly squeeze you for value. It's only human to want to push back.

But you'll hear more about that from me later.