You're right, the problem with anecdotes is that they are told as innocent stories, but often serve a higher purpose, intentional or not. This one is no diffferent in that regard. An anecdote is usually written to convey a truth, a mindset or a "right way" to the reader. This is how religion gets many of its points across to the reader. It's also how a lot of racism works (I know this black guy/eskimo/Indian that never works, they're all like that) And the reader, unless he has an analytical mind which many don't, will perceive that truth or right to be exactly that.
I agree somewhat. An anecdote is a tool, and has been shown to have a more powerful effect on the minds of a population than solid evidence.
However, I think that anecdotes offer much more than just a way to avoid having to prove your point. They're not merely for gaining power over weak minds. They can be useful among intelligent, analytical folks as well. They can serve as a supplement to real data. They can illustrate a point of view more accurately. They can communicate a feeling or a sentiment, and can pack more meaning and generate more tangents of discussion than dry statements of fact. A startup begins with something like an anecdote, an idea that may be crazy, but stems indirectly from a myriad of past experiences.
Our brains are not binary storage units, and therefore anecdotes and parables have historically been used to help people remember things. Similarly, you cannot bring to the table a hard set of data for every life lesson that you've learned, and therefore you have many beneficial things to teach others that you cannot directly prove. If you're a good teacher, you'll tell an anecdote to help people remember (nonfictional preferred of course).
Our brains are not binary storage units, and therefore anecdotes and parables have historically been used to help people remember things.
Yes, an anecdote is a tool. It's great for remembering things, poor for proving things. It just so happens the only conceivable purpose of the original story was proving something. Now, if he had anecdote which helped you remember, say, the standard form of the quadratic equation or something else people just needed to remember, then it would be using the tool for its proper purpose.
And the "culture" of software organizations, the procedures, the bureaucracy, the personnel feedback, is based on accumulated anecdotes, and not on anything remotely scientific or any other rigor.
No proof required.