Going Public Means Never Admitting You’re Wrong

And regarding start-ups and their propensity for owning up and apologizing, I've never really seen much in the way of sincerity from the likes of Path or those in similar flare ups. It's just that an apology is the quickest and cheapest form of damage control when the fickle masses and page view hungry tech bloggers are crucifying you on twitter.

But I think this is very cogent, and one I had totally forgotten about in the whole FB media circus. But this is a rare opportunity for FB to reject precisely the parts of public company SOP that doom them to lack of understanding with their customers, etc.

FB has a hacker / break things culture. Public companies can't admit these things to the public.

Public companies often stagnate by not being able to relate to customers via the full feedback loop that admitting mistakes includes. Some companies get lucky because they insist on getting in touch with what the customer wants in other ways (e.g., through data at Google or through Lean Startup and two-pizza-size teams at other companies, etc.)

But it is an opportunity for FB to buck the norm and continue to take open risks and admit when they make mistakes. It is an opportunity to transform the culture of public companies.