(2010-08-12) Graham What Happened Yahoo

Paul Graham on what happened to Yahoo. The problems that hosed Yahoo go back a long time, practically to the beginning of the company. They were already very visible when I got there in 1998. Yahoo had two problems Google didn't: easy money (Banner Ad DotCom bubble), and ambivalence about being a technology company (vs New Media).

Hacker Culture often seems kind of irresponsible. That's why people proposing to destroy it use phrases like "AdultSupervision." That was the phrase they used at Yahoo. But there are worse things than seeming irresponsible. Losing, for example.