21 hours ago
- Yahoo had two main problems: easy money from banner ads and ambivalence about being a technology company.
- Easy money from brand advertising and a de facto Ponzi scheme with internet startups distracted Yahoo from focusing on search.
- Yahoo's insistence on being a 'media company' led to a non-hacker-centric culture, attracting weaker programmers.
- The lack of a hacker-centric culture caused a death spiral in programming quality, making it hard to recover.
- Successful tech companies need a hacker-centric culture to attract top programmers and build good software.