I can't help but feel that this is a bit cargo cult. I'll wait to see the results.
In Week Two, Marissa Mayer Googifies Yahoo
141–150 of 151 posts
Re: In Week Two, Marissa Mayer Googifies Yahoo
#142Looks like Marissa has learned the lesson told by Steve Blank in his famous essay, the elves leave middle earth http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-eart... It has bought her time with the engineers while she decides what to do.
I love this comment on the @sgblank post: When I started at mindspring as a startup (a dial up company) there were some very interesting rules. 1. Drug testing policy. If you have drugs we will test them. Classic stuff. That's the kind of culture I want to build at Fogbeam Labs when we get to the point of having employees. I like to say "let's be the Mötley Crüe of software companies." Hard partying, hard fighting, a…
Why would any comapny outside of List X (ie those working with SC and TS info) and a select number of govenment agencies have/need a drugs testing policy.
Re: In Week Two, Marissa Mayer Googifies Yahoo
#143So given all the hubbub lately I decided to visit Yahoo.com for the first time in years. I'm not really Yahoo's target audience, but my second-first impressions are: - That little "Make Yahoo! your homepage" thing that slides down and moves the rest of the content with it has got to go (especially considering there's a "Make Y! your homepage" link RIGHT below it). - Clicking on the dot in the exclamation point still…
> this site really seems to scream "late 30-something suburbian white woman with a minivan" in a way that that most other sites don't, so I don't feel very welcome here. Shouldn't the front page to one of the world's most recognized online brands start out a little more neutral On the contrary, you, personally, are not Yahoo's stereotypical user. Yahoo absolutely should start out appealing to its primary demographic…
Not exactly, I stopped visiting Yahoo and went to a more neutral site like Google News for this very reason.
Last I checked, news on Yahoo was becoming a joke, in my opinion. This reflected across their entire site, and even more so in the quality of their comments. I hope Marissa Mayer changes this, I doubt that any aspiring web company wants to be known for this.
Re: In Week Two, Marissa Mayer Googifies Yahoo
#144When did yahoo become people magazine?
Re: In Week Two, Marissa Mayer Googifies Yahoo
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry, but the people who only get excited with fancy hand outs won't be at Yahoo much longer if Marissa does her job right. She needs people who want to work long hours, and/or weekends. That kind of work ethic doesn't come from handouts, it comes from inspiring people around you to build something really awesome.
i dispise company cultures that encourage you to "want to work long hours, and/or weekends". if thats the (unspoken) goal of these culture changes, then you will end up with a bunch of burned out "friday night major release" staffers. it's about cutting the crap, getting rid of balast and setting the right priorities, not about "long hours".
That's fine, not everyone can live that kind of life. There are a few engineers, however, who do want to put in the extra hours to build something awesome.
The thing is, for that to be successful you will never be asked directly to work long hours. If you've never experienced that, it's impossible for me to explain it to you. It's just a desire you get when you work around really talented people who are equally dedicated.
Re: In Week Two, Marissa Mayer Googifies Yahoo
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry, but the people who only get excited with fancy hand outs won't be at Yahoo much longer if Marissa does her job right. She needs people who want to work long hours, and/or weekends. That kind of work ethic doesn't come from handouts, it comes from inspiring people around you to build something really awesome.
i dispise company cultures that encourage you to "want to work long hours, and/or weekends". if thats the (unspoken) goal of these culture changes, then you will end up with a bunch of burned out "friday night major release" staffers. it's about cutting the crap, getting rid of balast and setting the right priorities, not about "long hours".
[deleted]
Re: In Week Two, Marissa Mayer Googifies Yahoo
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
i dispise company cultures that encourage you to "want to work long hours, and/or weekends". if thats the (unspoken) goal of these culture changes, then you will end up with a bunch of burned out "friday night major release" staffers. it's about cutting the crap, getting rid of balast and setting the right priorities, not about "long hours".
That's fine, not everyone can live that kind of life. There are a few engineers, however, who do want to put in the extra hours to build something awesome. The thing is, for that to be successful you will never be asked directly to work long hours. If you've never experienced that, it's impossible for me to explain it to you. It's just a desire you get when you work around really talented people who are equally dedic…
i worked 60 hour weeks and sometimes 80 hour weeks, sometimes for companies in start up mode, some established market leader companies, sometimes i slept below the desk, sometimes i didn't sleep at all, for some i had (phantom)shares, for some i didn't (i get around a lot).
sometimes long hours are necessary, 95% of the time they aren't.
working 60 hour or more is a problem, never a solution. constantly working long hours leads to lousy decisions and to a lack of priorities (and a lack of priorities are the reason for another round of long hours).
one of the best CTOs i ever worked for was confronted with a lot of friday evening major releases, which more often than not lead to him loosing his weekends. he created a new policy that the last release would be thursday morning. code quality, bug occurrences an work/life balance improved significantly.
Re: In Week Two, Marissa Mayer Googifies Yahoo
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
I love this comment on the @sgblank post: When I started at mindspring as a startup (a dial up company) there were some very interesting rules. 1. Drug testing policy. If you have drugs we will test them. Classic stuff. That's the kind of culture I want to build at Fogbeam Labs when we get to the point of having employees. I like to say "let's be the Mötley Crüe of software companies." Hard partying, hard fighting, a…
I wish you success in that endeavour. The danger is that you might try to be "the Mötley Crüe of software companies" but end up being seen as "the Winger of web apps". I just had some Beavis and Butthead flashbacks when I read your post ;)
Hey, I like Winger!!! :-)
Re: In Week Two, Marissa Mayer Googifies Yahoo
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yahoo already has a real-time javascript framework of its own: http://developer.yahoo.com/cocktails/mojito/
Yeah. The point was more about mindshare and not just tech. "X has an image problem." where X can be any tech from an uncool company, even if it is fundamentally decent.
I understand your point, but mindshare can be difficult to evaluate. Do you actually know how popular Mojito is? I certainly have noticed the popularity of Meteor - and unpopularity of Mojito - on HN, but how does that translate to the general population of developers?
Re: In Week Two, Marissa Mayer Googifies Yahoo
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah. The point was more about mindshare and not just tech. "X has an image problem." where X can be any tech from an uncool company, even if it is fundamentally decent.
I understand your point, but mindshare can be difficult to evaluate. Do you actually know how popular Mojito is? I certainly have noticed the popularity of Meteor - and unpopularity of Mojito - on HN, but how does that translate to the general population of developers?
Indeed. Sentiment analysis is a problem. I think there are some companies working.
It is a real phenomenon, but just hard to access empirical quantified data at the moment.
As a quick measure I use things like Google Insights, compete.com, Github presence / stats etc.