4 ms·

The Adventures of Marissa Mayer

28 points by d4 16y ago

tedjdziuba 16y ago
Another Marissa Mayer article that boils down to "hey look, a girl!".
- samd 16y ago
  It's depressing that the article has to start with an exposition of her looks and dress. I've never read an article about a male luminary that focuses so much on looks.
  - sp332 16y ago
    I think they discuss her clothing because it's cool and interesting. I mean, almost every article about Page & Brin mentions their clothing, it just doesn't take as long to communicate "Short-shorts and a t-shirt." Also, the article makes a case that her appearance is relevant: “Marissa is surprisingly pretty in person,” says Valleywag blogger and editor Owen Thomas. “That in itself is a rarity in Silicon Valley, and you’d have to be naïve to think that doesn’t color people’s views of her.”
    - samd 16y ago
      Looks are almost always relevant to people's opinion of you. That's true for men and women, but it's only in articles about women that it seems to be pointed out as if to undermine their accomplishments.
      - sp332 16y ago
        I know it's subtle, but I think this article put those quotes from other publications at the beginning in order to shoot them down. Quotes like this: For gossip websites like Valleywag, Mayer is an easy mark... and (so they say)... uses her looks for publicity. are followed in the next paragraph by: Mayer manages 150 product managers, who direct the efforts of nearly 2,000 software engineers; levels criticism and praise with the same cool gaze; and is an arbiter of much of what goes before Page, cofounder Sergey Brin, and CEO Eric Schmidt, who trust her as their gatekeeper. Just about everything that goes on at the Mountain View company, which is more valuable than the U.S.’s three largest traditional media companies combined... OP seems to be undermining the other publications which were undermining Mayer. The substance of the article refutes the pettiness of Vallywag et al.
  - neworbit 16y ago
    People often bring personal appearance up when talking about Larry Ellison, mostly in the context of what a snappy dresser the guy is as compared to the rest of Silicon Valley.
- sp332 16y ago
  The beginning of the article was like that, but I thought the rest was pretty good? At around 11 a.m., Mayer went into the company kitchen for a snack. Peering into the fridge, she sensed she wasn’t alone. She turned around and saw Page standing in a small nook. Startled, she asked what he was doing. “I’m hiding,” he said. “The site is down. It’s all gone horribly awry.” She made it home that night at around 3 a.m., typical for the hours she would keep. As she climbed into bed, she thought, “It’s not exactly confidence building to see the CEO hiding in the kitchen, saying everything has gone horribly awry.” She gave the company a 2 percent chance of succeeding. I mean, that's pretty good content, really.
sabat 16y ago
Surely one of the most unimpressive, boring people in technology. Her distinction: she was in the right place at the right time.
- nostrademons 16y ago
  I'm as put off as anyone by all the excess publicity she gets, but your comment doesn't really do her justice. Marissa is very, very sharp. She can rub many people the wrong way (including myself) because she's almost always completely certain that she's right. However, she is right a good portion of that time, certainly more than most people I've met. And when she's wrong, she'll always listen to data that proves her wrong, and the issue gets dropped. I can respect that.
- ajays 16y ago
  Jealous, much? I don't know her from Eve, but she would not survive a day in that crowd (Page, Brin, and the other top-level Googlers) if she was "unimpressive".
- foljs 16y ago
  Also: blonde and kinda hot.
- jimfl 16y ago
  There is a significant component of "in the right place at the right time" involved with anyone of any notability. But once the wave crest comes along, one has to be able to get standing on the board.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
mahmud 16y ago
It's unfair to men that the technical press ignores our sex appeal, bulging crotches and foresting chest-hair, and focuses instead on the tiresome minutia of our work and accomplishments.
- wmf 16y ago
  Except Lou Montoulli: http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20129755,00.html http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20129755,00....
  - joshu 16y ago
    Just remember that he invented the blink tag.
    - nostrademons 16y ago
      Supposedly, that's only half true: http://www.montulli.org/theoriginofthe%3Cblink%3Etag http://www.montulli.org/theoriginofthe%3Cblink%3Etag
      - joshu 16y ago
        Shrug, I asked Marc.
sachitgupta 16y ago
Note: the article is from 2008. I thought it was more recent. Still doesn't take away from the content though.
- flyt 16y ago
  Interesting side note that when this article was originally published it was under the title "Googirl" which, it was pointed out, had a pretty strong nsfw meaning (http://valleywag.gawker.com/362143/googirl-article-vanishes-from-web http://valleywag.gawker.com/362143/googirl-article-vanishes-...). It was quickly pulled from the site and reposted with the current, more boring title.
  - nostrademons 16y ago
    Other interesting side note: if you search for [googirl], 3 of the top 4 results are about Marissa. The remaining one is the urban dictionary entry with the snippet "A whore that enjoys and/or loves the taste of cum." Oops.
fourspace 16y ago
Ah, geek celebrity. While publicly Google is viewed as a meritocracy, working there you quickly realize that it's very much a hierarchy of intimidation and arrogance. You may have great ideas, but if you really want to be successful you need one of the Google engineering celebrities to back your play. These "chosen ones" aren't in their position because they necessarily have the best ideas; in fact, many of the good ideas at Google are never explored because folks with social influence express doubt. Marissa Mayer isn't the only one in engineering, she's just the most famous. As the company increases in size, the meritocracy of ideas fades and being a good politician becomes more important. While it's not the primary reason I left after five years, it was certainly a consideration.
- nostrademons 16y ago
  There's a grain of truth to what you say, but it's misleading to attach it specifically to Google. Whenever you're doing something for somebody else, they're going to want to see two things from you: 1.) that you understand their problems and concerns and 2.) that you're doing your due diligence to address them. It doesn't matter whether it's Google, some other big corporation, your own startup, or a consultancy. If it's your startup, your customers will want to make sure that you understand their problems and do your due diligence before they fork over their money. If it's your consultancy, your clients will want the same. I've found that teams that understand this, grok Marissa's way of thinking about the world, and are willing to put in the legwork to iterate on their ideas and make them as good as possible have quite a bit of latitude to do what they want. Those that just spit some <div>s onto the page and come unprepared tend to be the ones that gripe about how Marissa blocks them from getting anything done. Many of the teams I've seen that had problems with Marissa also had terrible UIs, and I'd really hate to inflict them on the user. In many ways, this is just another way of saying the same thing you did - if you want to be successful, you need one of the decision-makers to back your play. But that's the case anywhere. I've been fond of saying that entrepreneurship is just trading one boss for many bosses - it's great if you hate your boss, not so great if you hate your bosses. Which is a good reason to pick a company or market whose bosses you fundamentally agree with. Also, speaking as someone who let his startup die because pretty much everyone with social influence over me expressed doubt - if you give up because of what other people think, it'll severely limit your ability to get anything done. If senior executives don't like your project, the best thing to do is listen to them, figure out if they have a point, and if they don't, go do it anyway. The worst thing that happens is that they fire you, and then you're in exactly the same boat as if you quit to found a startup, except that you've been learning about the problem domain while drawing a paycheck the whole time.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
jayzee 16y ago
Aaah.. the subtle sexist bias even in Marissa comes through. From the article: Indeed, Mayer invokes her mother a lot, which makes sense, given her steadfast devotion to the ease of the end user.

28 points by d4 16y ago

tedjdziuba 16y ago

Another Marissa Mayer article that boils down to "hey look, a girl!".

samd 16y ago
It's depressing that the article has to start with an exposition of her looks and dress. I've never read an article about a male luminary that focuses so much on looks.
- sp332 16y ago
  I think they discuss her clothing because it's cool and interesting. I mean, almost every article about Page & Brin mentions their clothing, it just doesn't take as long to communicate "Short-shorts and a t-shirt." Also, the article makes a case that her appearance is relevant: “Marissa is surprisingly pretty in person,” says Valleywag blogger and editor Owen Thomas. “That in itself is a rarity in Silicon Valley, and you’d have to be naïve to think that doesn’t color people’s views of her.”
  - samd 16y ago
    Looks are almost always relevant to people's opinion of you. That's true for men and women, but it's only in articles about women that it seems to be pointed out as if to undermine their accomplishments.
    - sp332 16y ago
      I know it's subtle, but I think this article put those quotes from other publications at the beginning in order to shoot them down. Quotes like this: For gossip websites like Valleywag, Mayer is an easy mark... and (so they say)... uses her looks for publicity. are followed in the next paragraph by: Mayer manages 150 product managers, who direct the efforts of nearly 2,000 software engineers; levels criticism and praise with the same cool gaze; and is an arbiter of much of what goes before Page, cofounder Sergey Brin, and CEO Eric Schmidt, who trust her as their gatekeeper. Just about everything that goes on at the Mountain View company, which is more valuable than the U.S.’s three largest traditional media companies combined... OP seems to be undermining the other publications which were undermining Mayer. The substance of the article refutes the pettiness of Vallywag et al.
- neworbit 16y ago
  People often bring personal appearance up when talking about Larry Ellison, mostly in the context of what a snappy dresser the guy is as compared to the rest of Silicon Valley.
sp332 16y ago
The beginning of the article was like that, but I thought the rest was pretty good? At around 11 a.m., Mayer went into the company kitchen for a snack. Peering into the fridge, she sensed she wasn’t alone. She turned around and saw Page standing in a small nook. Startled, she asked what he was doing. “I’m hiding,” he said. “The site is down. It’s all gone horribly awry.” She made it home that night at around 3 a.m., typical for the hours she would keep. As she climbed into bed, she thought, “It’s not exactly confidence building to see the CEO hiding in the kitchen, saying everything has gone horribly awry.” She gave the company a 2 percent chance of succeeding. I mean, that's pretty good content, really.

sabat 16y ago

Surely one of the most unimpressive, boring people in technology. Her distinction: she was in the right place at the right time.

nostrademons 16y ago
I'm as put off as anyone by all the excess publicity she gets, but your comment doesn't really do her justice. Marissa is very, very sharp. She can rub many people the wrong way (including myself) because she's almost always completely certain that she's right. However, she is right a good portion of that time, certainly more than most people I've met. And when she's wrong, she'll always listen to data that proves her wrong, and the issue gets dropped. I can respect that.
ajays 16y ago
Jealous, much? I don't know her from Eve, but she would not survive a day in that crowd (Page, Brin, and the other top-level Googlers) if she was "unimpressive".
foljs 16y ago
Also: blonde and kinda hot.
jimfl 16y ago
There is a significant component of "in the right place at the right time" involved with anyone of any notability. But once the wave crest comes along, one has to be able to get standing on the board.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

mahmud 16y ago

It's unfair to men that the technical press ignores our sex appeal, bulging crotches and foresting chest-hair, and focuses instead on the tiresome minutia of our work and accomplishments.

wmf 16y ago
Except Lou Montoulli: http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20129755,00.html http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20129755,00....
- joshu 16y ago
  Just remember that he invented the blink tag.
  - nostrademons 16y ago
    Supposedly, that's only half true: http://www.montulli.org/theoriginofthe%3Cblink%3Etag http://www.montulli.org/theoriginofthe%3Cblink%3Etag
    - joshu 16y ago
      Shrug, I asked Marc.

sachitgupta 16y ago

Note: the article is from 2008. I thought it was more recent. Still doesn't take away from the content though.

flyt 16y ago
Interesting side note that when this article was originally published it was under the title "Googirl" which, it was pointed out, had a pretty strong nsfw meaning (http://valleywag.gawker.com/362143/googirl-article-vanishes-from-web http://valleywag.gawker.com/362143/googirl-article-vanishes-...). It was quickly pulled from the site and reposted with the current, more boring title.
- nostrademons 16y ago
  Other interesting side note: if you search for [googirl], 3 of the top 4 results are about Marissa. The remaining one is the urban dictionary entry with the snippet "A whore that enjoys and/or loves the taste of cum." Oops.

fourspace 16y ago

Ah, geek celebrity. While publicly Google is viewed as a meritocracy, working there you quickly realize that it's very much a hierarchy of intimidation and arrogance. You may have great ideas, but if you really want to be successful you need one of the Google engineering celebrities to back your play. These "chosen ones" aren't in their position because they necessarily have the best ideas; in fact, many of the good ideas at Google are never explored because folks with social influence express doubt. Marissa Mayer isn't the only one in engineering, she's just the most famous. As the company increases in size, the meritocracy of ideas fades and being a good politician becomes more important. While it's not the primary reason I left after five years, it was certainly a consideration.

nostrademons 16y ago
There's a grain of truth to what you say, but it's misleading to attach it specifically to Google. Whenever you're doing something for somebody else, they're going to want to see two things from you: 1.) that you understand their problems and concerns and 2.) that you're doing your due diligence to address them. It doesn't matter whether it's Google, some other big corporation, your own startup, or a consultancy. If it's your startup, your customers will want to make sure that you understand their problems and do your due diligence before they fork over their money. If it's your consultancy, your clients will want the same. I've found that teams that understand this, grok Marissa's way of thinking about the world, and are willing to put in the legwork to iterate on their ideas and make them as good as possible have quite a bit of latitude to do what they want. Those that just spit some <div>s onto the page and come unprepared tend to be the ones that gripe about how Marissa blocks them from getting anything done. Many of the teams I've seen that had problems with Marissa also had terrible UIs, and I'd really hate to inflict them on the user. In many ways, this is just another way of saying the same thing you did - if you want to be successful, you need one of the decision-makers to back your play. But that's the case anywhere. I've been fond of saying that entrepreneurship is just trading one boss for many bosses - it's great if you hate your boss, not so great if you hate your bosses. Which is a good reason to pick a company or market whose bosses you fundamentally agree with. Also, speaking as someone who let his startup die because pretty much everyone with social influence over me expressed doubt - if you give up because of what other people think, it'll severely limit your ability to get anything done. If senior executives don't like your project, the best thing to do is listen to them, figure out if they have a point, and if they don't, go do it anyway. The worst thing that happens is that they fire you, and then you're in exactly the same boat as if you quit to found a startup, except that you've been learning about the problem domain while drawing a paycheck the whole time.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

jayzee 16y ago

Aaah.. the subtle sexist bias even in Marissa comes through. From the article: Indeed, Mayer invokes her mother a lot, which makes sense, given her steadfast devotion to the ease of the end user.