[jimbokun]

"People, and especially a very large fraction of people in the software industry, are loathe to think that anything other than ability and pure reason factor into, well, anything."

I would phrase it slightly differently.

We understand full well the world in general doesn't work this way. But we want to carve out a small part of the world where things do work this way, as much as possible.

I think Fog Creek (now Stack Exchange) is trying to embody this ideal in how they have structured their offices. Joel was a developer, and designed his office space in a way that he believes will lead to the greatest possible productivity for his developers.

So the biggest criticism is aimed towards places like Facebook, Google, and other software firms who pay lip service to geek ideals, but prove in how they lay out their office spaces what they really care about.