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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

#171

Post by danssig »

rytis wrote: post #156
harshreality wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to lie and not get caught might be a core value in the psychopath model of corporate leadership. Getting caught in a lie makes one a poorly qualified psychopath.

I think it's just next level in the game: when you lie and get caught, how easily can you shrug it off and carry on. Not everyone can do this with a straight face. Politicians can. They're good at that.

Like Hilary Clinton getting shot at. I'm still shocked that she was let off after "well... I have those memories". That would have been the end of my political career.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#172

Post by Angostura »

mkopinsky wrote: post #108
Angostura wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cutting him some slack, its possible that his accounting degree had a significant computing component and he decided to bring this significant aspect out. My degree is in Biological Sciences, but in my third year I specialised almost entirely in molecular biology. Informally I'm sure I've said 'I did molecular biology at university' - although on my CV I've always listed Biological Sciences.

Biological sciences is pretty similar to molecular biology. Accounting is not quite as similar to computer science.

True, my point was that is possible that the accountancy course was an unusual one, in that it had a large computing component.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#173

Post by Fabimaru »

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…

We had a nice one in France. A small criminal (convicted for fraud, theft, setting fire...) was hired as the director of a small airport. He pretended to be a aviation engineer, a former army pilot and to have taken part in many wars. Everyone was completely satisfied with his work during 3 months, when he was finally caught.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#174

Post by michaelochurch »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #93
maeon3 wrote: post #23

His pay package for yahoo is 27 million dollars, i wonder how much of that he will keep after he gets the pink slip? Probably more than I'll ever earn in 5 of my lifetimes. It doesn't seem fair. But I guess demand for ceo's is high and quality ceo's are scarce.

Quality CEO's my ass. Salaries for CEOs are high because they work like the mob's "cleaners" a lot of the time, and because they come from an exclusive club who all hire each other.

Bingo. And the sooner we rise up and get rid of this club, the better.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#175

Post by danssig »

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.

Personally, I think "deterrence" has an incredibly awful success rate. I also think that, if prisons should even exist, they should only be for physically dangerous people. Never for "money" crimes. Being locked away from society for years, your life destroyed and likely abused or even raped seems beyond "cruel and unusual" to me.

Personally I think the whole concept of prison is primitive and should be done away with. If someone is violent then they have something wrong in their head and should be treated. I know that currently asylums can be worse places than even prisons, but once we move away from this draconian "people must suffer so I can feel better about wrong in the world" strategy we can move much more focus on getting treatment and detection right.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#176

Post by isomorph »

roel_v wrote: post #166
kamaal wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> let's say Indians have a reputation of being sloppy programmers Firstly, you assume that Indians are sloppy programmers. And then you conclude? >> I'd probably be tempted to lie about my nationality when applying for a remote job. I am an Indian and I'm proud of my nationality. I would never lie, rather I'm proud to be associated with a nation and culture whose history dates back to the cradle of human civilizatio…

It's ironic and also a little sad that by your poor reading comprehension skills, you sort of confirm or reinforce a point that he wasn't even making at all :/

So kamaal's response wasn't totally on point but I don't see why s/he has been downvoted to oblivion

Prefixing "Indians have a reputation of being sloppy programmers" with "let's say" doesn't totally take the sting out.

I'm not Indian but I still winced when I read it

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#177

Post by Produce »

HackR wrote: post #169
Produce wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean like being a code monkey at a web agency, yet they get paid shit all? You mean like hitting rocks in a mine all day until your back gives up on you, yet they get paid shit all? You mean like trying to run a farm and competing against giant corporations who want to take over your business? People at the top of the corporate and political ladders are excellent at one thing - bullshitting. Their job is the same…

supply vs demand my friend. Anyone can hit rocks in a mine. It might be hard and stressful work, but anyone can do it. Not anyone can make decisions and lead an entire group of people.

I think that the trouble is that high school teaches people how to follow, so they are conditioned for that. When people get to university-level education and, even more so, complete a masters degree, they have access to all sorts of information which the average person will find very difficult to obtain. The other aspect of this, which I would argue is far more important, is the social connections which are available at the "upper" end of society. It's all an old boy's club and semi-closed culture which most people simply don't have access to.

Leading is a skill just like mining or programming are skills - they can all be learned. Given the recent evidence of life-long brain plasticity, it's reasonable to assert that this is more a problem of nurture than nature.

In short, we train relatively few people to lead, hence the low supply.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#178

Post by rehack »

roel_v wrote: post #166
kamaal wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> let's say Indians have a reputation of being sloppy programmers Firstly, you assume that Indians are sloppy programmers. And then you conclude? >> I'd probably be tempted to lie about my nationality when applying for a remote job. I am an Indian and I'm proud of my nationality. I would never lie, rather I'm proud to be associated with a nation and culture whose history dates back to the cradle of human civilizatio…

It's ironic and also a little sad that by your poor reading comprehension skills, you sort of confirm or reinforce a point that he wasn't even making at all :/

I think olalande could have avoided the Indian reference. I too winced a bit when I read it a few hours earlier.

I also winced at the overt & embarrassing nationalism of kamaal, good that he just stopped short of singing the national anthem :-) (but don't agree with the down voting his comment to oblivion).

And also at the second part of your sentence, was unnecessary. That completes my nit pick. Woof!

Edit: A description would help, if you down vote a perfectly civil comment of mine.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#179

Post by hughw »

Angostura wrote: post #74
pygorex wrote: post #69

It's such a stupid lie as well. He already has a degree in accounting and has loads of relevant experience. Why lie about an additional degree? What's happening here is liar's debt. Early in his career he must have made a decision to lie about his education, when no one was looking and when the chances of someone verifying the claim were low. He reused the lie on every subsequent job and it's stuck with him. It becam…

Cutting him some slack, its possible that his accounting degree had a significant computing component and he decided to bring this significant aspect out. My degree is in Biological Sciences, but in my third year I specialised almost entirely in molecular biology. Informally I'm sure I've said 'I did molecular biology at university' - although on my CV I've always listed Biological Sciences.

My case is similar but different. My M.A. diploma says Geological Sciences. But it would be misleading to think I know anything at all about rocks. I studied geophysics and I put M.A. Geophysics on my resume. That is more accurate, and people in the field know geophysicists from my university by reputation, without caring about the trivial detail that our degrees are in "geological sciences".

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#180

Post by bmelton »

seanp2k2 wrote: post #87
fleitz wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It "gave us confidence," says Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Wilkerson, former commander of the Marine Corps Reserve, who increased purchases of Lotus Notes after meeting Papows. "Jeff was a Phantom driver just like me."" This is exactly why people lie, because it doesn't matter how well your software works, what matters is that the people buying it feel like you're on the same team. Whether the CEO is a fighter pilot or not s…

Another thing too: what does it matter if you lie about the degree if /you can do the work/ ? Sure, it's unethical and I'm pretty sure it's illegal to lie outright about stuff like that to potential employers / boards, but again, if you come out and say "hey, I lied about this, but judge me on my output and not on my credentials"...that's gotta be worth something. That said, Yahoo isn't doing great, and I'm sure peop…

Because lying is immoral behavior and the only reasonable response to catching someone in a lie is to trust them less.
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