No, but in some circles there's an assumption that self employment is just a stopgap, and you're only working for yourself until you can find another position where you can pad someone else's bottom line instead of your own.

As far as I can tell, the people he spoke to assumed he was going freelance because he couldn't get a "normal" job.

I've certainly had people criticise my choice to be self-employed (mainly my family), but I've never actually encountered the assumption that it was my only choice. Regional attitudes vary, I guess.

When people ask what I do, I often break the ice by saying "I'm self-unemployed" with a smile. I can then explain the somewhat complicated web of open-source, startup building and consulting projects that fill my day, without some of the awkwardness that being hard to categorize sometimes invokes.

Or I just tell them I'm doing so well that Facebook got scared and tried to sue me out of business!

As he said in his article, it probably depends on your location and social group.