My thoughts were similar, the content was interesting but the Jeff Atwood writing style had claimed another victim. As a writer, I strive to have my words and ideas express themselves without the constant use of italics, bold and exclamation points. I understand it's a choice (and God knows, it's made Jeff Atwood famous) but there's only so many important things to say in an essay and chances are they don't need to be bolded as badly as one might think.