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A profound apology

newsroom.uber.com

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Re: A profound apology

#211

Post by synicalx »

_xhok wrote: post #124

Here's the conversation that took place: Travis: So we are reducing the number of black cars in the next few months. Fawzi: It’s good. Travis: You probably saw some email. Fawzi: I saw the email [that says] it starts in May. But you’re raising the standards and dropping the prices. Travis: We’re not dropping the prices on Black. Fawzi: But in general. Travis: In general, but we have competitors. Otherwise we’d be out…

Why should he have to apologise for this? This is normal 'robust' conversation between an employer and an employee who have a disagreement.

The driver is apparently bankrupt (well done), so I would not be at all surprised if he deliberately tried to bait Travis into this conversation so he'd have a story to sell. At the end of the Bloomberg article where this surfaced, they noted that the driver got 1 Star for that ride - I find it hard to believe that anyone other than Uber and the driver would have been able to know that.

Re: A profound apology

#212

Post by synicalx »

smcmurtry wrote: post #65
jamestimmins wrote: post #26

I'm a bit unclear what is so negative about this. While there is an argument that a leader should be able to handle criticism without losing his/her temper, he appears to respond to the driver as an equal with whom he profoundly disagrees. He didn't write the man off or act as though he wasn't worth his time, he simply responded in a frustrated manner to an interaction that he clearly was not in the mood for. Does be…

>Kalanick: You know what? >Kamel: What? >Kalanick: Some people don't like to take responsibility for their own shit. They blame everything in their life on somebody else. I think that is a very insulting and superior thing to say to someone.

If something's true, does it really matter if it insults someone?

Driver buys a $97k car, goes bankrupt because as it turns out buying a super expensive car that you obviously can't afford is a dumb idea, then decides to blame someone else for his poor decision making.

Re: A profound apology

#213

Post by codr4life »

brlewis wrote: post #173
mejari wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An alcoholic that becomes sober is still an alcoholic, they are just in control over their alcoholism.

A rude person that becomes conscious of the way it comes across to act disrespectfully may still be an rude inside, but if he/she is in control of the disrespectful behavior then I count that as real change.

This kind of relativism with truth isn't really leading us forward. So now pretending to change is suddenly more or less equal to actual change? Can you imagine any negative effects from that redefinition?

Re: A profound apology

#214

Post by smallnamespace »

Hydraulix989 wrote: post #182
muzzio wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about Bill Gates? Nobody could have seen him being the most prolific philanthropist of all time back when he was leading Microsoft in the 90's.

I don't know if those are orthogonal though (ruthless business leader and philanthropist). Andrew Carnegie is another great example.

Those qualities aren't necessarily orthogonal, but think about what it implies about how you should treat that ruthless capitalist.

Every dollar you gave to Bill Gates ended up being rather effectively used for good.

Re: A profound apology

#215

Post by michaelmrose »

gingerbread-man wrote: post #200
bogomipz wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So being a successful human being is gauged solely on the size of one's bank account?

No, but saving thousands (millions?) of lives through philanthropy goes a long way towards making up for being kind-of-a-dick-sometimes.

If you got rich wholly or partly through wrong doing I don't understand how you can assign them any of the credit for giving some of it away.

Imagine if I mugged you for $100 and gave $20 to the red cross?

Re: A profound apology

#216

Post by _xhok »

btian wrote: post #191
_xhok wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I didn't find this disproportionately disrespectful. The driver makes a couple unsubstantiated claims (perfectly ok--it's a car discussion). Travis does the same. The driver starts making accusations ("you keep changing every day"). Travis asks for clarification. The driver keeps up his attack ("You changed the whole business! You dropped the prices.") If someone accused me in such a fashion, and persiste…

From the Bloomberg article - > In 2012, Uber Black cost riders $4.90 per mile or $1.25 per minute in San Francisco, according to an old version of Uber's website. Today, Uber charges $3.75 per mile and $0.65 per minute. The least a CEO could have said is to thank the driver for his feedback and promise to look into it. Just because you're disrespectful doesn't mean the CEO of a consumer facing company can treat its p…

I spent the last half hour thinking about this on and off, trying to shift my perspective. I feel sort of guilty. Advocating for objectivity and dispassionate truthseeking is the second easiest way to curry favor on HN, and it feels cheap. (The easiest is still outrage, never to be topped anywhere :))

If anything, I find it sort of funny that Travis got mad. He handled it pretty well at first; they were just having an honest disagreement. Then it was like he just decided, "fuck it, I've had a bad day, and I don't need to take this guy's shit." He might meditate on the fact that this guy spends his evenings being the reason that Uber's business model works.

Re: A profound apology

#217

Post by [deleted] »

btian wrote: post #191
_xhok wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I didn't find this disproportionately disrespectful. The driver makes a couple unsubstantiated claims (perfectly ok--it's a car discussion). Travis does the same. The driver starts making accusations ("you keep changing every day"). Travis asks for clarification. The driver keeps up his attack ("You changed the whole business! You dropped the prices.") If someone accused me in such a fashion, and persiste…

From the Bloomberg article - > In 2012, Uber Black cost riders $4.90 per mile or $1.25 per minute in San Francisco, according to an old version of Uber's website. Today, Uber charges $3.75 per mile and $0.65 per minute. The least a CEO could have said is to thank the driver for his feedback and promise to look into it. Just because you're disrespectful doesn't mean the CEO of a consumer facing company can treat its p…

[deleted]

Re: A profound apology

#218

Post by smallnamespace »

synicalx wrote: post #212
smcmurtry wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Kalanick: You know what? >Kamel: What? >Kalanick: Some people don't like to take responsibility for their own shit. They blame everything in their life on somebody else. I think that is a very insulting and superior thing to say to someone.

If something's true, does it really matter if it insults someone? Driver buys a $97k car, goes bankrupt because as it turns out buying a super expensive car that you obviously can't afford is a dumb idea, then decides to blame someone else for his poor decision making.

On the other hand, the person he's complaining to had a direct role to play in the fall in his income (justified or not).

Re: A profound apology

#219

Post by codr4life »

muzzio wrote: post #177
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Name some.

How about Bill Gates? Nobody could have seen him being the most prolific philanthropist of all time back when he was leading Microsoft in the 90's.

He's not though. He's turning worse, owning the media makes it easier to pretend being mr Nice Guy. Bill has his head so far stuck up the elite ass by now that he's helping killing off less fortunate parts of the global population for profit to invest in oil and weapons. http://www.wakingtimes.com/2017/02/23/bill-gates-admitted-eu...

Re: A profound apology

#220

Post by cyphunk »

btian wrote: post #191
_xhok wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I didn't find this disproportionately disrespectful. The driver makes a couple unsubstantiated claims (perfectly ok--it's a car discussion). Travis does the same. The driver starts making accusations ("you keep changing every day"). Travis asks for clarification. The driver keeps up his attack ("You changed the whole business! You dropped the prices.") If someone accused me in such a fashion, and persiste…

From the Bloomberg article - > In 2012, Uber Black cost riders $4.90 per mile or $1.25 per minute in San Francisco, according to an old version of Uber's website. Today, Uber charges $3.75 per mile and $0.65 per minute. The least a CEO could have said is to thank the driver for his feedback and promise to look into it. Just because you're disrespectful doesn't mean the CEO of a consumer facing company can treat its p…

> The least a CEO could have said is to thank the driver for his feedback and promise to look into it.

saying "thank you, I'll look into it" is politics. I think many appreciate honesty more. In this case that honesty costs.

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