For those of you who might have missed the reference, Spolsky is referring to Atlassian here, even though he doesn't mention them directly by name (not sure why he didn't - perhaps he was still in the denial phase)

Some points I reflect on after reading both articles are:

  - Should the real needs of my customers be met,
    or the needs I think they have?
    That is, where is my focus: On the customer or on the product? (ref. blog post)

  - Can I allow myself to think that my competitor is selling junk, 
    as mentioned in: 
        "So that's the development team's mission for 2010:  
        to eliminate any possible reason that 
        customers might buy our competitors' junk, . . . ." (ref. inc post)

  - Should I build the perfect product and use a salesforce
    to push it on customers that does not happen to 
    know that we have the best product (ref. inc article),
    OR should I make sure that we all the time make sure that we 
    build what the customer needs and wants (ref. blog post)?