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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

#201

Post by vlad »

ramLlama wrote: post #37
felipemnoa wrote: post #33

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). What is the difference between having them separate as opposed to saying it was a double major? You still have to meet the same requirements don't you?

I believe double majors do not functionally require as much due to a greater chance of being able to double-count a class. Also, a double major typically means you get one diploma that lists your two majors. A double degree means that you get two physically separate diplomas. This may matter to someone. Of course, I may be compeletely wrong with respect to the OP's university.

(OP here! This is turning into an interesting discussion.)

The requirement for double majors is to complete both majors; only two courses are allowed to count twice, and only if the undergraduate chair of the department agrees.

Once you complete a double major, you can get a double degree (two diplomas) by reaching 150 credits instead of the 120 required for a single or double major.

Seems pretty fair since many colleges offer a one year Masters degree once you reach 150 credits (yes, I did take some graduate courses on my journey.)

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#202

Post by vlad »

kscaldef wrote: post #49
felipemnoa wrote: post #33

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). What is the difference between having them separate as opposed to saying it was a double major? You still have to meet the same requirements don't you?

My double degree required completing 150 credits, rather than 120 credits for a single degree with double major (the equivalent of an addition year of courses). I can't recall at this point if there were any additional course requirements, but I don't think there were.

(OP here) Same here! Why don't you list your degrees as B.S. in Physics and B.S. in Mathematics on LinkedIn?

Were you issued two diplomas, like me? Even if the college only issues a single diploma for everybody, you're allowed to list both separately if your college officially recognizes that you completed a double degree.

Once I realized I could reach 150 credits to qualify for a double degree, I talked to the registrar, who told me they print a single one that looks exactly like the one for double majors unless the degrees are different types (B.S. and B.A.), but you were allowed to list them as separate on your resume (and could pay $30 to get a second copy). This glitch was fixed in time for my graduation, however, and I got two diplomas.

They still had a glitch where you had to choose one major to walk with for graduation, even for a double degree. Some students including myself solved this problem by getting in line for each of the majors.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#203

Post by MartinCron »

danssig wrote: post #175
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.

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 wit…

Being locked away from society for years, your life destroyed and likely abused or even raped seems beyond "cruel and unusual" to me

You know that politically-correct killjoy who always speaks up about how distasteful and offensive prison rape jokes are? I'm that guy.

That seems like a compelling case for reforming the prisons into a place where you're punished for your infractions against society, but not abused or raped. Prison shouldn't completely destroy someone's life, either. We need to have meaningful ways for prisoners to re-enter society as productive citizens. Otherwise, things never get better.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#204

Post by mgkimsal »

roguecoder wrote: post #198
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.

All humans lie, whether intentionally or not. Eye witness testimony is notoriously unreliable simply because our brains do so much data compression when recording events and then unreliable, subconscious extrapolation techniques to play it back. That's before we even get to intentional manipulation. There are five lights and all. I could see how being more consciously aware of the distortions would make one better at…

"eyewitness testimony" being wrong is vastly different from someone intentionally fabricating credentials. "That's before we even get to intentional manipulation." I know you're aware of the difference, but the terminology is, to me, pretty clear.

'Lying' implies some intentional deception. While saying something that is not factually true is part of that, the intention, motivation and awareness of the person would constitute whether it was a 'lie' or not. At least, to me, it's always been that clear.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#207

Post by tomkarlo »

jrockway wrote: post #34
MartinCron wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lying on your resume should get you fired. Lying on SEC filings should get you imprisoned.

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."

To do that, we'd have to find an effective alternative to prison. Financial / professional penalties are clearly not enough - if the penalty for getting caught in a crime that makes you millions of dollars is just paying some penalties, why not take that gamble? From a purely rational standpoint, it would be the logical thing to do - if you win, you make millions, if you get caught you just cough up the money.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#208

Post by alecbenzer »

felipemnoa wrote: post #145
alecbenzer wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my uni (UIUC), there's some technical issues with double majors. I had originally wanted to double major in cs and math, but that's not allowed, because cs is in the engineering college and math is in the liberal arts and sciences college. Since my college grants my degree, neither the engineering college nor the liberal arts college can grant me a degree with the two majors cs and math. I'd need to get two degree…

Are you able to use classes from one college to satisfy the requirements of the other college? For example, if you meet all the liberal arts requirements in one college I expect that they will count towards the other degree right? The fact that you cannot call it a double major is merely a technicality is it not (Although in my mind it is still a double major)? What does it matter if they are not issued by the same c…

Well, it is a bit of technicality I guess, but you're not getting two degrees with a double major. You're getting one degree with two majors (at least as far as I understand it). Getting a dual degree is actually getting two separate degrees. And there's a bunch of bureaucratic stuff you need to push through to get approved for a dual degree here (more than there would be for double majoring with two majors within one college).

As far as I know the requirements would count towards both degrees, though.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#209

Post by alecbenzer »

tomkarlo wrote: post #115
alecbenzer wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 prestigiou…

Well, while I do think the idea of giving priority to legacies is pretty stupid and give MIT credit for that, I have other problems with their admissions process (I'm admittedly a bit biased as an MIT reject -- though to be fair it would sound like you are too). I know a decent amount of people at MIT, and while some of them definitely deserve to be there, there are a lot of others that I think don't, and got in for what I think are pretty superficial reasons.

Re: Yahoo CEO might have lied about having CS degree

#210

Post by wamatt »

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…

On a personal level I've always found lying and dishonest behavior repugnant.

But looking at it more objectively, it's an opportunistic strategy. Usually it is associated with short term wins and long term losses.

I tend to focus on long term strategies in life. Been working well for me and I'm happier, healthier and wealthier, and increasing as time progresses. It's a good place to be!

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