I've known about Nielsen for years, being a budding copywriter, and I know by now that he's one to take with a grain of salt.

I recommend reading him, but like many web-based marketers and copywriters, he's not a big picture guy. His only focus is readability, and when you take it to the extreme like he does (just check out his site: http://www.useit.com/) you end up sacrificing other important elements that compel people to read your content, like aesthetics.

The author mentioned this in the article, and these other elements shouldn't be discounted when creating worthwhile content. The article was great, by the way, very funny!