Reward or not, or how

It depends.

There is a story Thanks or No Thanks told be Joel Spolsky, happened between him and Noah Weiss.
I just get these few ideas:

• Noah not only provided the idea, but also with precise charge for each AD, when Joel had no idea;
• Noah implemented the first draft - sadly, this might be the least value-add and why Noah switch from Software Designer to Product Manager;
• Joel thought others might think: a software business is basically an idea factory ... Why pay twice? (You know what I think? I just know my own thoughts, and not really.)
  
• Joel himself thought:
• I felt we needed to do something else to express our gratitude. Should we ... ? We were stumped.
• And what about everybody else at Fog Creek?
• How do you pay employees based on performance when performance is so hard to quantify? (Woo! Really Hard? Yes, I know, pretty hard to reward!)
• The very act of rewarding workers for a job well done tends to make them think they are doing it solely for the reward;
• We decided to give Noah 10,000 shares of stock -- conditional ... our stock is hard to value ... (Emm... Conditional and Hard to value ...)
• Noah seemed pleased (Or negotiation is expected?) Google made him a better offer ... Thanks for the summer, Noah. We are keeping an empty office here in case you change your mind. (No Thanks and Fxxx Off!)
  

Anyway, it's still appreciated that Joel shared the story.