It seems disingenuous to compare what "Shirls" did with many of the points made in the article.
"We're doing well, our investors are happy!" is saving face (or, perhaps they want to believe it so badly that they do).
What she did is the equivalent of falsely saying "We have an investment from Andreessen Horowitz -- see, here's a copy of our term sheet!" and then using the person's credit card to buy yourself a plane ticket.
Everybody lies a bit to themselves feel better when things are going badly. Congressmen leave to spend time with their family, breakups are always "mutual", etc. This is completely different than the TC article.
"We're doing well, our investors are happy!" is saving face (or, perhaps they want to believe it so badly that they do).
What she did is the equivalent of falsely saying "We have an investment from Andreessen Horowitz -- see, here's a copy of our term sheet!" and then using the person's credit card to buy yourself a plane ticket.
Everybody lies a bit to themselves feel better when things are going badly. Congressmen leave to spend time with their family, breakups are always "mutual", etc. This is completely different than the TC article.