I have at other times taken your standpoint, but this article seemed rather extreme to me (I only read the first page, mind you). I don't mind comments on the looks etc - in fact I am pretty sure to have read somewhere about PGs "fiendishly good looks". I just felt they really overdid it in that article.
I would have hated the article anyway, because it is waaay to long, but the first page being only superficialities absolutely killed it for me.
Nice article about an interesting person. Inventive, full of energy; qualities I wish I had. It's interesting to see how she started as a software engineer (like me) and ended up as a VP. I can't see myself making that same jump although it's interesting to see how someone else did.
The first time I opened the page I completely missed the article.
My centre of focus was on the MIDDLE bar. I like asymmetric web pages, but the design of that website just hurts. To actually get through the first page of my article I moved my laptop right so I was focusing propelry instead of looking to one side of my screen constantly.
The article takes up less than 50% of the area of the screen, which just squeezes it out of perceptibility. So I never got through the article, I'm sure it was good or it wouldn't have been posted but it was awfully presented. Poor writer, I hope he got paid well for people being unable to read his work.
Skinny columns are a hallmark of newspapers, mostly because they're a lot easier to read. I'm not arguing that the design was great here, but if you look at CNN's stories, they're not all that wide, either.
OK, she's cute, on several levels. I don't know what was more surprising, that she is a geek with style or an American with same.
But the talking so fast that it's dazzling? Phleaaaaaaase. Since Xerox Parc, the trick is public domain: use twice as many words to say the same thing. Easy with practice. And a tad boring.
I listened to a talk she gave at Stanford and she did speak very quickly but without the "saying twice as words". She conveyed her ideas twice as quickly and got more said.
Of course, her laugh was so annoying I almost shut off the podcast even though it was interesting.