"Fred George’s experience of Programmer Anarchy was probably so positive because he was working in a team of high performance programmers."

This pretty much sums up the validity of programmer anarchy for any given work climate. Much like a society of good citizens may (theoretically) be self governing, high-performance programmers work best when they are given a task and all red tape is removed. Unfortunately, anyone who has worked in the tech field knows this isn't always the case. Some people/companies need guidance and lack of personal autonomy, however unfortunate that may be.