I thought it was witty, and all things considered I prefer good ideas in witty packages to good ideas all by themselves. That probably explains why Joel Spolsky obtained some early popularity: many people found his posts entertaining and educational at the same time.
The problem is that online, when there aren't any vocal or body language cues to go by, people tend to take posts like this as snarky. I'm sure OP didn't mean it that way.
