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Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

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Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#111

Post by alecbenzer »

tomkarlo wrote: post #35
smoody wrote: post #25

Sort-of off topic: That guy has nothing on some of the other infamous CEO career lies... take the ex-CEO of Lotus (former makers of 123, Lotus Notes, etc). He lied about being a fighter pilot, having a PhD, and being a black belt in tae kwon do. source: http://www.zdnet.com/news/background-of-lotus-chief-under-fi... I think people get to a point where they start to believe their made-up mythology. Or perhaps they rea…

Or, the head of admissions at MIT: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-04-26-mit-admiss... No question she was good at her job, but it's a real problem when you're in charge of any kind of hiring to ask your applicants to be honest if you're not honest yourself.

> No question she was good at her job

Out of curiosity, why do you say so? Not that the dishonesty would make her necessarily bad at her job, but what made her good at it?

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#113

Post by jlev »

alecbenzer wrote: post #111
tomkarlo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, the head of admissions at MIT: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-04-26-mit-admiss... No question she was good at her job, but it's a real problem when you're in charge of any kind of hiring to ask your applicants to be honest if you're not honest yourself.

> No question she was good at her job Out of curiosity, why do you say so? Not that the dishonesty would make her necessarily bad at her job, but what made her good at it?

She understood the institute culture, and helped build a student cohort each year that reflected and preserved it. I still think it's a damn shame she had to leave.

- MIT '07 & '10

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#114

Post by bigiain »

MartinCron wrote: post #99
jrockway wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lying on SEC filings should get you imprisoned. This costs me a lot of money, and I don't want to give free money to people just because they are dishonest. Ban the guy from being the CEO or a board member of a publicly traded company for 10 years. Inexpensive and an appropriate punishment for the crime. Let's reserve prison for people that absolutely cannot integrate with normal society.

Let's reserve prison for people that absolutely cannot integrate with normal society Are you really making the case that no white-collar criminals should go to prison? I guess I can see where you're coming from, but I personally think that we need more financial fraudsters behind bars. You know, the whole "rule of law" and "deterrence" business.

As someone looking in to USA society from outside - it certainly seems that at least investigating non-incarceration methods for dealing with most of your "prison population" would be worthwhile. There's a gigantic industry entirely funded by taxpayers - there's no doubt at least some of the "military industrial complex $1000 hammer" type behavior going on. That industry is legally required to "increase shareholder value", rather than minimize the cost-to-the-taxpayer.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#115

Post by tomkarlo »

alecbenzer wrote: post #111
tomkarlo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, the head of admissions at MIT: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-04-26-mit-admiss... No question she was good at her job, but it's a real problem when you're in charge of any kind of hiring to ask your applicants to be honest if you're not honest yourself.

> No question she was good at her job Out of curiosity, why do you say so? Not that the dishonesty would make her necessarily bad at her job, but what made her good at it?

She picked me off the waitlist.

Really - she was the Dean of Admissions for a very long time (I think she was at MIT for 28 years overall, something like that) and while I can't remember her personally any more, I know that she had a strong rep both inside the administration and in the related professional community as well. If you're going to be Dean of Admissions, I'd have to think MIT is one of the most prestigious schools in the country for that post, especially when you consider it doesn't allocate large quotas to legacies the way some other top schools do.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#116

Post by rapind »

brudgers wrote: post #44
smoody wrote: post #25

Sort-of off topic: That guy has nothing on some of the other infamous CEO career lies... take the ex-CEO of Lotus (former makers of 123, Lotus Notes, etc). He lied about being a fighter pilot, having a PhD, and being a black belt in tae kwon do. source: http://www.zdnet.com/news/background-of-lotus-chief-under-fi... I think people get to a point where they start to believe their made-up mythology. Or perhaps they rea…

You always were one of my favorite students.

smoody! brudgers! It's been too long man, let's catch up?

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#117

Post by krakensden »

eitally wrote: post #89
krakensden wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have a B.S. in Computer Science and B.S. in Mathematics (a double degree). Had I taken fewer courses, I could have had a combined B.S. Computer Science and Mathematics (a double major). It's worth noting that with "holds a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics" the double degree/double major distinction is a little ambiguous. As a broader point, universities are heterogeneous enough that I'm not sure caring deep…

I have a BA in History and Religious Studies from UVA. I intentionally state this ambiguously because, while I completed all of the coursework and theses for a BA in each, the university doesn't confer multiple Bachelors degrees. At the time of commencement, I was given the choice whether to walk with either the History or the Religious Studies department, and the diploma states "Bachelor of Arts in History and Relig…

Yeah. It's a little sad that when you're in college, taking the harder path of two similar sounding degrees is a point of pride, but nobody* will ever notice or care once you have that degree.

*For a value of 'nobody' that doesn't include your graduating cohort at your school.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#118

Post by MartinCron »

bigiain wrote: post #114
MartinCron wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's reserve prison for people that absolutely cannot integrate with normal society Are you really making the case that no white-collar criminals should go to prison? I guess I can see where you're coming from, but I personally think that we need more financial fraudsters behind bars. You know, the whole "rule of law" and "deterrence" business.

As someone looking in to USA society from outside - it certainly seems that at least investigating non-incarceration methods for dealing with most of your "prison population" would be worthwhile. There's a gigantic industry entirely funded by taxpayers - there's no doubt at least some of the "military industrial complex $1000 hammer" type behavior going on. That industry is legally required to "increase shareholder v…

The prison system shouldn't be about either "increasing shareholder value" or "minimizing cost-to-taxpayer". It should be about rehabilitation, justice, and public safety.

Part of the problem is that it's really hard to win an election against someone who has positioned themselves as "harder on crime" than yourself. As a result, we have legislators pushing for tougher and tougher prison sentences, mandatory sentencing, etc. I don't know how other countries deal with this pressure, but I would be eager to see the United States do better.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#119

Post by neckbeard »

sliverstorm wrote: post #40
tomkarlo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, the head of admissions at MIT: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-04-26-mit-admiss... No question she was good at her job, but it's a real problem when you're in charge of any kind of hiring to ask your applicants to be honest if you're not honest yourself.

Maybe it isn't a problem, but actually something that makes her good at her job? I'd trust a long-time liar to recognize other liars better than an honest person, any day.

"It's probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in." -- Lyndon B. Johnson referring to J. Edgar Hoover.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#120

Post by wtn »

bigiain wrote: post #114
MartinCron wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's reserve prison for people that absolutely cannot integrate with normal society Are you really making the case that no white-collar criminals should go to prison? I guess I can see where you're coming from, but I personally think that we need more financial fraudsters behind bars. You know, the whole "rule of law" and "deterrence" business.

As someone looking in to USA society from outside - it certainly seems that at least investigating non-incarceration methods for dealing with most of your "prison population" would be worthwhile. There's a gigantic industry entirely funded by taxpayers - there's no doubt at least some of the "military industrial complex $1000 hammer" type behavior going on. That industry is legally required to "increase shareholder v…

Your counterpoint is way off topic… What you're saying about the business of prisons here is 100% true, but you could increase prosecution (and imprisonment) of white collar fraud by 10X and the effect on the overall US prison population would be small.
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