Without getting into the utility or truth of this post, it's this kind of mealy, on the edge of misleading double-talk that makes me feel cynical and burned-out at a company. It's paternalistic, and a way of talking down to people who can't handle the truth. But damn it, looking at this from the author's perspective, if you're going to build a large company, everyone won't be realistic, and many people probably do need paternal looking-after. It strikes me as probably-necessary if you don't really know everyonen you're working with, or in cultures like the bay area where people have weird expectations.