@Jim Cooper While I can't comment on Joel Spolsky's ability as a programmer, his comment makes sense. Code alone does not provide context. While you should strive to avoid redundant comments that repeat what the code does, you still need comments and technical specs to tell you why the code even exists and how it fits into the larger picture. It's also very helpful to point out to developers when you are using certain patterns, algorithms, etc and not expect them to just intuit it from a cleverly named class. At least you should give them enough to google with.