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Marissa Mayer on career growth and how a revenue guarantee almost killed Google

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Re: Marissa Mayer on career growth and how a revenue guarantee almost killed Google

#171

Post by antt »

JudasGoatse wrote: post #164
antt wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gates broke the law and nearly destroyed his company. Had he been less well politically connected the appeal would have gone another way and we would have had at least three Microsofts today. Like I said, 'value' is a dangerous proposition to measure anyone by.

Lol. Ifs, buts, shoulda-beens, almost-weres. I'm sure most successes flirt with failure at some point. So what? There's no arguing that both men created immense value. It's totally appropriate that they're lauded for it. I don't know why you're trying to be such a spoilsport about it. Don't begrudge smart, hardworking people their success, it makes you look like a bitter wingnut. I mean, really: Microsoft and Apple a…

There are no ifs and buts. Microsoft wasn't destroyed as a monopoly by the skin of its teeth. Much to the detriment of posterity.

Here's hoping the next president starts treating digital monopolies like regular ones.

Re: Marissa Mayer on career growth and how a revenue guarantee almost killed Google

#172

Post by hlurhhh »

JudasGoatse wrote: post #120
hlurhhh wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wrote this somewhere else in this thread, but I like her because she's one of the few (current) 'well known' women in tech that's successful and stylish. She's exactly the kind of representation I need and want.

She's not successful, she's wealthy. There's a difference. She got a lottery ticket at Google and cashed in, then proceeded to run Yahoo into the ground. She's widely considered a failure in tech and business circles, and for good reason (I was with her at Yahoo and can testify to her strategic incompetence). If Marissa is the role model you want - stylish but incompetent - then I feel bad for you. Much like Elizabet…

Don't feel bad for me, I'm twenty-something years old and having Marissa as my tech woman icon is just some fun. I'm sorry you don't like her, but the choices for role models as a woman in tech are limited. (And yeah I know about Hopper and Hamilton and Borg, the difference is that Mayer is a current kinda-household name and in Vogue, literally.)

Also don't lump Marissa in with Elizabeth Holmes, Holmes could never be iconic with that hair.

Re: Marissa Mayer on career growth and how a revenue guarantee almost killed Google

#173

Post by darkpuma »

omot wrote: post #138

I'm always irked by hns attitude towards women leaders. There so many comments trying to discredit her or trying to shame her for self promotion. In general, there's always a sexist undertone, and I feel like the anonymity of hn brings the sexism of the tech community to the surface. In regards to Marissa, I personally believe that the Glass Cliff is real. It's inspiring that she was integral in creating one of the m…

I don't think I've ever seen anything but glowing praise for Lisa Su on hacker news.

Then again, HN seems to discuss her less than Marissa Mayer. Why is that? She's far more successful. When I think great women leaders in tech, she's the first I think of. Anti-hardware bias maybe? Or maybe it's a valley bias. After all, she came out of MIT rather than Stanford and lives in Austin rather than San Francisco. I don't know, what do you think?

Re: Marissa Mayer on career growth and how a revenue guarantee almost killed Google

#174

Post by a_imho »

codingdave wrote: post #58
paganel wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At one point she was seen from the outside as the 3rd most powerful/influential person at Google, after the two founders and even ahead of Schmidt, I remember articles praising her decision of leaving the Google front-page almost empty with only two buttons on it (I think this was around 2008-2010). Then she went to Yahoo and drove it into the ground and as such I'm surprised that people still take her business-relat…

It is a question of perspective. She was the head of a sinking ship, yes. But did she cause the sinking, or did she recoup the most returns possible for the investors before it sank? I wasn't there. I don't know the inside story. I'm not going to take sides. But neither am I going to assume that she has poor business skills just because she headed up a shutdown effort.

Picking a sinking ship to head a shutdown effort is not exactly a life calling for such influential people I would imagine though.

Re: Marissa Mayer on career growth and how a revenue guarantee almost killed Google

#175

Post by aaronbrethorst »

erobbins wrote: post #51
Harj wrote: post #2

Marissa described possibly the most thorough and analytical job search process I've heard from anyone, when she was talking about how she joined Google. I really liked her reflection on this in hindsight on how being overly analytical is dangerous and it's something I try to remind myself of when I'm in danger of overthinking a decision: "I think this is a common thing that very analytical people trip themselves up w…

> "I think this is a common thing that very analytical people trip themselves up with. They look at things as if there’s a right answer and a wrong answer when, the truth is, there’s often just good choices, and maybe a great choice in there." This absolutely drives me crazy in design/engineering decisions. Very commonly there are a lot of good solutions and one great one, and the good ones are good enough. Yet all t…

This used to drive me nuts too. Now I just look at it as an opportunity to outmaneuver folks who are too wedded to making their solution ‘perfect.’ (Whatever that means.)

Re: Marissa Mayer on career growth and how a revenue guarantee almost killed Google

#176

Post by hlurhhh »

sfblah wrote: post #149
hlurhhh wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think Marissa even pretends to know how to code at this point. I think in the past she did pretend to, which was sort of a problem. I don't know what your problem is with her but holy shit I'm pretty sure she can code.

Prove it.

She has a masters in CS and was google employee #20, how about you prove she can't. You got some beef with her too, huh?

Re: Marissa Mayer on career growth and how a revenue guarantee almost killed Google

#178

Post by Udik »

antt wrote: post #171
JudasGoatse wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol. Ifs, buts, shoulda-beens, almost-weres. I'm sure most successes flirt with failure at some point. So what? There's no arguing that both men created immense value. It's totally appropriate that they're lauded for it. I don't know why you're trying to be such a spoilsport about it. Don't begrudge smart, hardworking people their success, it makes you look like a bitter wingnut. I mean, really: Microsoft and Apple a…

There are no ifs and buts. Microsoft wasn't destroyed as a monopoly by the skin of its teeth. Much to the detriment of posterity. Here's hoping the next president starts treating digital monopolies like regular ones.

So Bill Gates proved his incompetence by growing a company to the point of becoming a monopoly, at risk of dismemberment by the antitrust?

Re: Marissa Mayer on career growth and how a revenue guarantee almost killed Google

#179

Post by ckastner »

omot wrote: post #138

I'm always irked by hns attitude towards women leaders. There so many comments trying to discredit her or trying to shame her for self promotion. In general, there's always a sexist undertone, and I feel like the anonymity of hn brings the sexism of the tech community to the surface. In regards to Marissa, I personally believe that the Glass Cliff is real. It's inspiring that she was integral in creating one of the m…

> I'm always irked by hns attitude towards women leaders. There so many comments trying to discredit her or trying to shame her for self promotion.

HN demonstrably shows the same attitude towards male leaders as well. Elon Musk is the poster child of this.

This has nothing to do with the gender of the leader, but rather an aversion to self-promotion, hyping, or any other exaggeration of the self or one's accomplishments.

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