[philwelch]

His bad press comes from the fact that he's been in the hype cycle long enough to reach the backlash stage, and he made a bold enough move to trigger that backlash.

Any successful startup will fall into this trap if it operates in startup mode for long enough. Just mash up the concepts of "startups iterate quickly and fearlessly", "people fear change", and the hype cycle. Or hell, just rely on the hype cycle by itself.

Note that this is true whether or not changing Facebook's default privacy settings and launching Instant Personalization was a good idea or not. It doesn't matter whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, just that sufficient numbers of people consider it a bad thing, for the thing to trigger the backlash stage. And if you're innovating, you almost have to do something lots of people consider a bad thing. You get a pass for this early on in the hype cycle, of course, but even if you continue the same pattern of behavior, once the hype cycle reaches backlash you will pay for it all in spades, and internet comment trolls will call you a psychopath.