For that matter, that sounds so generic — gather requirements, then synthesize them into a document on how you see the software working — that it could apply to just about any process, including those advocated by Joel.

Do I read books? Sure I read books, magazines, articles; I listen to fellow software developers; I listen to designers and managers; I listen to users; I reflect on my own 18 years of software development experience — both successes and failures — in the hopes of becoming better at delivering good software in a wide variety of domains, on time and on budget. So, guilty as charged.

Just to add a wrinkle: once upon a time I used Solaris and Mac exclusively (Win 3.1 days). The Mac was much easier to use than Windows because it met my expectations. Somewhere along the way I switched. Now I use WinXP and Linux. WinXP is much easier to use than Mac because it meets my expectations. What has changed? Yes, yes, Windows isn’t as much of a piece of crap as it used to be, but mostly my expectations have changed. Give me a years using the Mac exclusively and my expectations will have changed again.

Too much software is created by people who think they know how the process works by reading a bunch of books by people who can only theorize how users need to be treated.

Joel is right just by your example. Give me a break