I know folks around here sometimes like to rag on Joel Spolsky (the popularity of the jumping the shark article comes immediately to mind), but when I was a junior in high school, I had a very similar experience to the one mentioned here.

The computer science culture in central Ohio is kind of less than amazing (especially for a varsity athlete type), and I didn't really have any idea of what the good computer science schools were. When I googled around for it, I came across the Perils of Java Schools (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ThePerilsofJavaSchool...).

At that point, it struck me that Joel knew a lot more than I did, so I decided to send him an email asking what schools were best. Not only did he answer, but there was actually some correspondence that led to a good short list for me. After being accepted to Carnegie Mellon, MORE correspondence helped me avoid Information Systems (an easier track that the football coach at CMU was trying to get me to pursue). For lack of a better description, Joel Spolsky was the best college guidance counselor I had.

I think it's important to keep in mind that, when I asked him for help, I was a slightly above average public high school student in Hilliard, Ohio, so he was just being a really nice guy.

Maybe it's not as important that he's 'nice' but rather that he cares and acts upon it.