Agree on taking responsibility. There are a lot of excuses he could have made: economy, bad PR firm, etc. By taking blame he can now move on to fix things.
Also note, this is a perfect response in a PR crisis - taking responsibility (if not legal responsibility), and not behaving like it's everyone else's fault but your own.
If I buy something, and the vendor screws up, if they give me a bunch of excuses, I am more likely to think they'll screw up again. If the vendor takes personal responsibility, there is less chance that they'll make the same mistake again.
Comments
Nice to see Mr Spolsky taking it on the chin and not making excuses.
I would be interested in seeing an online version of any of the presentations. Pretty please ?
Agree on taking responsibility. There are a lot of excuses he could have made: economy, bad PR firm, etc. By taking blame he can now move on to fix things.
Also note, this is a perfect response in a PR crisis - taking responsibility (if not legal responsibility), and not behaving like it's everyone else's fault but your own.
I confess I don't understand this mentality. Why do you personally care that Joel took responsibility?
If I buy something, and the vendor screws up, if they give me a bunch of excuses, I am more likely to think they'll screw up again. If the vendor takes personal responsibility, there is less chance that they'll make the same mistake again.
Ah, I didn't get that you had bought a ticket.
In full disclosure I didn't. I am just throwing out opinions from the cheap seats. :-)
I agree. Would have loved to have went to the '09 conference though.
@spolsky: I guess you've really taken the locksmith lesson to heart then :-)
I'm confused. Didn't he put the blame on poor attendance?
I'm confused. Did you read just the first sentence?
The second: It’s my fault, actually. Followed by an entire post re: errors made in planning DevDays '11.