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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

#181

Post by bmelton »

why-el wrote: post #52
vijayr wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

by that logic, may be we should hire ex-cons for law enforcement? they'd probably make better cops than 'normal' people?

Not a very good analogy, as ex-cons already underwent punishment and hopefully some reflection. Also, if I follow your logic, then that will ruin Spielberg's Catch Me if You Can for me.

Completely offtopic, and I don't mean anything negative about you when I say this, but I'm always interested in the response when people attribute a director to the success of a movie based on a book.

Did you know that the movie was based on Frank Abagnale's book (also entitled "Catch Me If You Can", or did you just prefer Spielberg's version?

Especially in this case, where the movie is so close to the book, it's questionable. Just like in Sin City, the adaptation is so true to its source material, if you liked one, you're pretty well assured of liking the other.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#182

Post by eli_gottlieb »

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.

If we judge by most actual results, most CEOs are not all that great at making decisions and leading groups. They get their jobs and get paid anyway.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#184

Post by why-el »

bmelton wrote: post #181
why-el wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a very good analogy, as ex-cons already underwent punishment and hopefully some reflection. Also, if I follow your logic, then that will ruin Spielberg's Catch Me if You Can for me.

Completely offtopic, and I don't mean anything negative about you when I say this, but I'm always interested in the response when people attribute a director to the success of a movie based on a book. Did you know that the movie was based on Frank Abagnale's book (also entitled "Catch Me If You Can", or did you just prefer Spielberg's version? Especially in this case, where the movie is so close to the book, it's que…

Hey no problem, a fellow cinephile here. And yes I knew it was on a book but did not read it. I liked the movie for a whole set of reasons (For instance, Christopher Walken's performance) but reading the book would definitely have affected how I value the director's work. I had a similar discussion with my uncle, who is a writer and director, about another movie: The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo (The original version, not the American adaptation). My uncle read the books; I didn't. I really liked the movie, and found the plot rather satisfying to some degree, but my uncle hated it, and said the director simplified things to an alarming extent, losing all the interesting details that made the books successful. So I think reading the books is a good habit if one wants to judge the director's intention, but sometimes I just don't have time.

Update: I reread your question, and I think you want to know if directors are taking too much credit which ought to go to the book writer? I think in this case we might disagree about the director's function, which I think goes far beyond the intricacies of the story.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#186

Post by schandur »

tomkin wrote: post #183

I wonder how differently this story would have played out if it was Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos? My inclination is that there would be a resounding ya, but he's doing a great job so why does it matter? So...does it matter any way?

I think the difference here is that Scott Thompson was not a founder/co-founder but hired to the CEO position based on certain credentials.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#187

Post by loganfrederick »

newbie12 wrote: post #132
tomkarlo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All you'll be doing then is turning him into a high-priced industry consultant or public speaker. Not that prison always prevents that (See: Michael Milken) but it at least puts the brakes on it for a few years.

Milken is an interesting case. He literally created the market for high yield ("junk") bonds, and a lot of the charges the feds threw at him were because creating a new market meant breaking stupid regulations about yields and such.

I'm not anti-Milken by any means, but based on Connie Bruck's "The Predator's Ball", Drexel Burnham Lambert was scurting a lot of regulations when it came to appropriately labeling the types of deals and securities in which they were engaging. Milken might not have been running any blatant frauds or insider trading rings, but he was at the very least misrepresenting DBL's activities and or avoiding proper filings altogether.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#188

Post by SimHacker »

netrus wrote: post #158
Duff wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily indicative of anything -- maybe he spent his time working on the dats processing system sued by the accounting and finance departments.

"I work in the IT industry for 5 years now, so I guess I have a CS BS somehow."?

Math is NP hard! Let's go searching!

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#189

Post by pavel_lishin »

egor83 wrote: post #59
tomkarlo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All you'll be doing then is turning him into a high-priced industry consultant or public speaker. Not that prison always prevents that (See: Michael Milken) but it at least puts the brakes on it for a few years.

More than that, I believe. That would also create a good incentive to avoid lies for the rest of executives.

Haven't there been studies proving that a prison sentence is a poor deterrent? I mean, on the face of it, the fact that there are still prisons full of criminals sort of points in that general direction. (At the very least, it shows that people do a poor job of comparing risk of prison vs. reward of wrongdoing.)

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#190

Post by SimHacker »

tomkin wrote: post #183

I wonder how differently this story would have played out if it was Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos? My inclination is that there would be a resounding ya, but he's doing a great job so why does it matter? So...does it matter any way?

Steve Jobs had an honorary PhD in Reality Distortion from Miskatonic University, so he could put anything he wanted to on his resume.
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