I wish there were an update to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle

I've said in other threads that Marissa is the highest profile example of this principle.

When they published the new logo design of Yahoo I came to the same conclusion. A stunningly professional answer to the wrong question. Mayer might be - and I emphasise "might", as I don't know enough about her - the archetype of the engineer who executes the wrong programme without flaw.

> Pretty sure that anyone could sit on a pile of Alibaba stock and just do nothing, and come out ahead of where Yahoo is today.

No. You're not privy to the details. Neither am I. It's easy to discount someone for a public failing, but imagine yourself in her shoes. Unless you're a bored corporate exec of a Fortune 500 company, I highly doubt you have the management and financial acumen to keep Yahoo! afloat.

Neither did she, that's the point.

> Pretty sure that anyone could sit on a pile of Alibaba stock and just do nothing, and come out ahead of where Yahoo is today.

I'm willing to stipulate this. It's worth pointing out that it's usually very difficult for people in highly politicized roles to just sit and do nothing, even when that's obviously the right thing to do and they would personally like nothing more.

Also, it wouldn't have been at all obvious at the time that doing nothing had a mentionable chance of ending better than sincere efforts to guide the company.

Ehhh... when over 100% of your company's value is in cashlike financial instruments that it owns, it should be obvious that there's a chance doing nothing will pay better than trying to do something. The size of that chance may not be obvious, but the presence should be.

By the same token, she could have fired all the rank and file on day one and sat on that pile of stock all by herself.

Quite; she seems to have chosen the worst course of action for everyone but herself.

No writes "expert in converting investors money into my own" on their CV but it is the main skill of most CEOs these days.

Would many investors preferred this course of action at the time that she was hired?

Personally, I have been thinking for a very long time that any investment in Yahoo was an indication of a very special mindset. A dotcom bubble reenactment society that part-times as a real company. In that light, the weirdest things can make sense.