A response to this post from another asp.net developer: http://geekswithblogs.net/dlussier/archive/2014/02/19/155486...

"...early on in my MVP/Community days (2007ish). Microsoft hired some non-traditional devs to head up something in the ASP.NET group. Phil Haack, Scott Hanselman, Rob Conery all came on board and launched ASP.NET MVC which BLEW. ASP.NET. UP."