It's about shipping

Interesting tug of war between Joel Spolsky and Scobleizer about what makes a good software company work environment.

I've worked at companies with fancy chairs, good pay, lousy pay, nifty benefits, stock options (fakie-poo and real), abusive management and fantastic management. There's lots to making a job great.

If I had to narrow it down to one thing that matters most, I'd say it would be shipping software (often). I've found software folks a very idealistic crowd. There's a sense (among many) that they feel they can change the world in some way. You can't change the world if you never ship anything.

A close second in my book would be creative freedom and ownership. How many stories have we all heard about those evil "renters." Those people who thrash their home or apartment they rent because it doesn't really matter to them. When you own your place, you don't thrash it (at least not as bad :-). It's the same idea for building software. If your decisions will make or break a great software product, you'll care about its outcome.

Fancy chairs, individual offices, cafeterias, fancy computers, dual monitors--great software builders will not stay at a company for these sorts of things. They stay if they're changing the world and they get a chance to do it on their own terms. IMHO.