Sarah is a very thoughtful and serious journalists, she wouldn't write this story if there wasn't something here. She is pretty open about the fact that she obviously doesn't have all the details - that is good reporting.
This is what success looks like. As a two-sided marketplace OpenTable is a fantastic business with very high barriers to entry. This is classic case of investor patience paying off.
Some of our best ideas come from when we are away from the computer totally engaged in something other than work. I think Seth and others will ultimately learn this.
I agree -- a high-school basketball coach has massive impact on a relatively small number of people yet a really good coach can have deep and lasting impact.
There is no single Yahoo (part of the identity problem Yahoo has) and therefore you cannot generalize a culture across Yahoo.
Each division within Yahoo really had its own culture. The search group culture was entirely different from the media (news, sports, etc.) group which was entirely different from the listings (real-estate, etc.) business.
A group like Yahoo Search (prior to its sale) was an entirely tech centric organization. Many of the top engineers from Yahoo Search Yahoo! are now co-founders within top Silicon Valley startups.