Marissa Mayer on career growth and how a revenue guarantee almost killed Google • Hacker News Board

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

#81

Post by tardo99 » Tue, Apr 09, 2019, 11:47 PM UTC

amaranth wrote: post #75

tardo99 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do some reading for f*'s sake. Take a look at this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hamilton_(scientist) Marissa is a fake computer scientist. There are real female computer scientists out there, and very good ones at that.

The woman with a masters in computer science is a fake computer scientist?

Sigh. Regurgitating stuff you read is very different from being someone who actually knows how to build things. 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.

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

#82

Post by devoply » Tue, Apr 09, 2019, 11:48 PM UTC

akozak wrote: post #80

devoply wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah pretty much, I don't see much going on with many of these high status women (and men) other than their network. Especially when their actual performance doesn't speak volumes.

Damn, check your biases.

I feel the same way about many CEOs.

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

#83

Post by antt » Tue, Apr 09, 2019, 11:49 PM UTC

devoply wrote: post #73

dustindiamond wrote: post #61

She seems like a lucky Elizabeth Holmes type.

Yeah pretty much, I don't see much going on with many of these high status women (and men) other than their network. Especially when their actual performance doesn't speak volumes.

To be fair I don't see much going on with all the high status men either.

I'm reminded of the chimps who outperformed the stock markets: https://www.ft.com/content/abd15744-9793-11e2-b7ef-00144feab... of course replacing the cocaine bill with grapes dramatically lowers your running costs.

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

#84

Post by akozak » Tue, Apr 09, 2019, 11:50 PM UTC

devoply wrote: post #82

akozak wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn, check your biases.

I feel the same way about many CEOs.

Cool but you chose to say "high status women" instead of "CEOs".

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

#85

Post by blueline » Tue, Apr 09, 2019, 11:50 PM UTC

devoply wrote: post #73

dustindiamond wrote: post #61

She seems like a lucky Elizabeth Holmes type.

Yeah pretty much, I don't see much going on with many of these high status women (and men) other than their network. Especially when their actual performance doesn't speak volumes.

terrible and baseless generalization

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

#86

Post by devoply » Tue, Apr 09, 2019, 11:53 PM UTC

antt wrote: post #83

devoply wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah pretty much, I don't see much going on with many of these high status women (and men) other than their network. Especially when their actual performance doesn't speak volumes.

To be fair I don't see much going on with all the high status men either. I'm reminded of the chimps who outperformed the stock markets: https://www.ft.com/content/abd15744-9793-11e2-b7ef-00144feab... of course replacing the cocaine bill with grapes dramatically lowers your running costs.

agreed.

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

#87

Post by Udik » Tue, Apr 09, 2019, 11:54 PM UTC

4thaccount wrote: post #49

batty_alex wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to weigh in this way, but yes it's a rare thing to do. Most people don't have multiple offers sitting on the table. It's a privilege. It's rare, that's all.

I'm referring to comparing your existing job to a new one. Everyone does this and it can't be rare. You have to look at quality of work, work life balance, the area, commute time, cost of living, salary, 401k match, benefits, chance of advancement, company culture, job safety, bonus amount, job security...etc. For a lot of people the choice is a no-brainer, but there are comparable and even worse jobs out there. I ap…

The issue is that almost all the factors you mentioned- quality of work, work-life balance, chance of advancement, company culture... - are all aspects you can only have the vaguest of ideas about before you start in a new company. And a mistaken evaluation of even a single one of them can change completely the score of the offer.

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

#88

Post by hlurhhh » Tue, Apr 09, 2019, 11:54 PM UTC

tardo99 wrote: post #81

amaranth wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The woman with a masters in computer science is a fake computer scientist?

Sigh. Regurgitating stuff you read is very different from being someone who actually knows how to build things. 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 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.

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

#89

Post by compiler-guy » Tue, Apr 09, 2019, 11:56 PM UTC

tardo99 wrote: post #79

compiler-guy wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently our experiences in her orbit were pretty different. That doesn't mean I'm lying, and I don't think you are either. I have no idea what your experience is, and I have absolutely no reason to lie. I doubt Marissa could pick me out of a police lineup if her life depended on it. But I watched her kick ass at Stanford--both socially and intellectually--and it takes more than a pretty face to do that.

If you went to Stanford in that era, then you know that Symbolic Systems was basically "Computer Science Lite."

Which she crushed, and then she moved on and crushed the master's level courses.

And then got a job at Google. Of all the dot-com companies hiring on campus at the time throwing million dollar opportunities at new graduates, she picks the unicorn.

At some point it isn't luck anymore.

Anyway, I'll agree to disagree here. The post I originally responded to was a question about what is so special about her.

I only know what I saw when I could observe her. That my observations differ from yours is OK with me.

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

#90

Post by onlyrealcuzzo » Tue, Apr 09, 2019, 11:58 PM UTC

subjectHarold wrote: post #39

dopamean wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol. Yahoo was killing it before she showed up?

She pissed off most of the staff. She introduced a weird iteration of "fire the bottom performers every year". She bailed out Dan Loeb (who had hired her but changed his mind after she refused to do almost anything she promised). She didn't get a particularly good price in the eventual sale. She got paid hundreds of millions for nothing (her pay alone was ~5% of the eventual sale price...one person). Terrible acquisi…

From everything I know about Marisa Meyer's tenure at Yahoo!, it seems like she was truly terrible. What I'm curious about, though: what was her tenure like at Google? How did she move up so fast and get such a high profile job so quickly?