Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Uber Board to Discuss CEO Absence, Policy Changes: Source

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 110 posts

Re: Uber Board to Discuss CEO Absence, Policy Changes: Source

#91

Post by watwut »

zoomzippity wrote: post #83
watwut wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I don't think that all law-breaking is by necessity immoral. People who broke the law and printed illegal literature in soviet block are heroes. Or people who helped runaway slaves. Eduard Snowden broke the law and I find it perfectly fine. If you don't stop at stop sign on bicycle, I don't find it particularly immoral. However, law-breaking in order to get ahead of business competition is far away from the above…

Even if they are breaking corrupt laws passed by the lobbyists working for the incumbents? Regulatory capture is a thing that harms society and Uber has done more to undo that harm than in this industry than anyone else.

If that would be true, they would not push for change in locations where regulations were sane. If they stood for pure market only, they would not sabotage competitors. They have their own lobbyist pushing for whatever suits them.

Re: Uber Board to Discuss CEO Absence, Policy Changes: Source

#92

Post by s73ver »

zoomzippity wrote: post #83
watwut wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I don't think that all law-breaking is by necessity immoral. People who broke the law and printed illegal literature in soviet block are heroes. Or people who helped runaway slaves. Eduard Snowden broke the law and I find it perfectly fine. If you don't stop at stop sign on bicycle, I don't find it particularly immoral. However, law-breaking in order to get ahead of business competition is far away from the above…

Even if they are breaking corrupt laws passed by the lobbyists working for the incumbents? Regulatory capture is a thing that harms society and Uber has done more to undo that harm than in this industry than anyone else.

He's not doing it because of that, though. He's doing it to get money. If he really felt that way, he'd be living to remove those laws.

Re: Uber Board to Discuss CEO Absence, Policy Changes: Source

#93

Post by s73ver »

thanksgiving wrote: post #11
jeffjose wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What have you done lately which is anything close to what Travis built vs. just commenting on a tech forum at his incompetence? At the risk of going on a tangent - isn't this ad hominem? Imagine for a second, someone profoundly successful made the statement OP made. Does your outlook change then?

I'd say no because nobody, not even Sergei and Larry, not even the devil incarnate at the database company, not anyone in silicon valley has done what Travis and his team have done. I was never a fan of ubers because like Dropbox I thought it was too simplistic and too easily replaceable. I've become more wary of the anti uber propaganda lately. I'm more suspicious of the press than ever. When I read some news all I…

"If Travis loses, it will be a teachable moment for other unicorns. What lessons can we learn about what he did incorrectly in stacking the board? How can a CEO/founder prevent a coup?"

Maybe not foster a culture of sexual harassment? Maybe not hire private investigators to tail reporters?

Seriously, everything bad that's come on Uber lately is no one's fault but their own. They, and no one else, performed these actions.

Re: Uber Board to Discuss CEO Absence, Policy Changes: Source

#94

Post by s73ver »

tawawern wrote: post #55
kolbe wrote: post #41

Sorry to be crass, but fuck this. I hate Travis's attitude as much as anyone, but no man who has achieved something as great as Uber deserves to go out like this--at the hands of some board members who rode his coat tail to riches. Reminds me of Apple marginalizing Steve Jobs. Fuck that. I want to see Travis face up to his immoral bullshit as much as anyone, but by Lyft pummeling Uber into the ground, not some coward…

> I want to see Travis face up to his immoral bullshit as much as anyone, but by Lyft pummeling Uber into the ground Why? What immoral bullshit? Lyft is basically free-riding off Uber. Uber does the heavy lifting taking on the entrenched taxi companies who have insulated themselves from competition via local politics and regulation and Lyft swoops in once the hard work is done, trying to convince customers who have b…

"Why? What immoral bullshit?"

You can't be serious. Hiring private investigators to stalk journalists? Promoting sexual harassment in his company? Obtaining the private medical records of someone raped by one of their drivers?

"These journalists have a vendetta against Travis that is not in my view reasonable. I will continue to use Uber if only to spite the press."

So nothing wrong with sexual harassment, then?

Re: Uber Board to Discuss CEO Absence, Policy Changes: Source

#95

Post by thrwitaway11 »

dang wrote: post #72
thrwitaway11 wrote: post #38

Kalanick's mom death seems odd to me... they were on inexpensive speed boat and his father lives but she doesn't?

We've banned this account. Commenting like this will eventually get your main account banned as well.

Pardon was not inferring anything devious ... just pondering its a tragedy and that is an odd thing to occur present day amidst all the terrible things/bad behavior that has been in the press lately about Uber.

It's like a story out of Shakespeare.

Re: Uber Board to Discuss CEO Absence, Policy Changes: Source

#96

Post by wideem »

zoomzippity wrote: post #81
kunaalarya wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They prob cant fire him but they can say that hes a big punching bag right now and bringing extra negative attention and he needs a break.

Zuckerberg didn't need a break and Facebook turned out fine. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2165566/Mark-Zuckerb... All the company needs is some pressure to shore up some long overdue culture debt. This is the fastest growing company in history after all. Not every aspect of the company was going to come out of the over perfectly baked when you grow that quickly. Uber isn't the first successful startup with…

Well, companies are not religious cults. And ceos are way overrated in the US. I feel like Travis is way to egocentric and that's bad for company http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/its-time-end-cult-ceo/leade...

Re: Uber Board to Discuss CEO Absence, Policy Changes: Source

#97

Post by malandrew »

matt4077 wrote: post #71
malandrew wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. So much this. Diversity of workplaces is something we should celebrate, yet the media and activists are keen on converting every workplace into their ideal. Not everyone desires to work at the same company. Some people want to work at an Apple, some want to work at a s Google, some just want to work on a hippie commune/coop, and some want to work at a high pace, high states, only the toughest, most productive,…

As it turns out, "employment at will" isn't "the end of the day". And "people on the outside" won't "stay out of it". Because if they did, we'd still have slavery, 8-year-olds in coal mines, and women in the kitchen. So I'll continue to make my opinion known, as a consumer no longer using Uber, as a citizen supporting laws mandating sane employment law, as a software engineer discouraging everyone from taking a job a…

> Because if they did, we'd still have slavery, 8-year-olds in coal mines, and women in the kitchen.

Which of these are examples of at-will employment? Your argument is a strawman.

Here is the wikipedia article on at-will employment for your edification:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment

Re: Uber Board to Discuss CEO Absence, Policy Changes: Source

#98

Post by tim333 »

zoomzippity wrote: post #81
kunaalarya wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They prob cant fire him but they can say that hes a big punching bag right now and bringing extra negative attention and he needs a break.

Zuckerberg didn't need a break and Facebook turned out fine. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2165566/Mark-Zuckerb... All the company needs is some pressure to shore up some long overdue culture debt. This is the fastest growing company in history after all. Not every aspect of the company was going to come out of the over perfectly baked when you grow that quickly. Uber isn't the first successful startup with…

I'm not sure the problems at Facebook were in the same league as those at Uber. See eg. "How true are Katherine Losse's allegations..." on Quora https://www.quora.com/How-true-are-Katherine-Losses-allegati...

Re: Uber Board to Discuss CEO Absence, Policy Changes: Source

#99

Post by zoomzippity »

tim333 wrote: post #98
zoomzippity wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zuckerberg didn't need a break and Facebook turned out fine. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2165566/Mark-Zuckerb... All the company needs is some pressure to shore up some long overdue culture debt. This is the fastest growing company in history after all. Not every aspect of the company was going to come out of the over perfectly baked when you grow that quickly. Uber isn't the first successful startup with…

I'm not sure the problems at Facebook were in the same league as those at Uber. See eg. "How true are Katherine Losse's allegations..." on Quora https://www.quora.com/How-true-are-Katherine-Losses-allegati...

I don't see any reason why Charlotte Willner's account of what happened at Facebook couldn't apply just as easily to Uber. What makes you say that things are not in the same league? Katherine Losses' allegations are as salacious as anything I've heard about Uber (or many other successful early stage tech companies for that matter)

    After five months of examining the company's culture, 
    Uber's new human resources officer, Liane Hornsey 
    concluded that the firm's treatment of women was no 
    worse than what occurs at other companies.

    Uber's biggest employee problems are pay and pride, not 
    sexism, says HR boss “Wherever I have worked, I have 
    seen things that are not great for women,” Hornsey said 
    in a USA TODAY interview. “I don’t think it’s about tech, 
    or this city or this company. I think it’s about the 
    world of work, and I think that it’s something that we 
    have to take really super seriously.”
source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/06/11/reports-uber...

Liane Hornsey was formerly the VP of People Operations at Google for like 5 years I think. I'm far more inclined to believe her account of what things are like than any journalist lazily trolling for any disgruntled former employee to recount a story that will generate ad impressions.

Re: Uber Board to Discuss CEO Absence, Policy Changes: Source

#100

Post by SimbaOnSteroids »

rtx wrote: post #60
SimbaOnSteroids wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth anti-Uber propaganda wouldn't have rung true for me nearly as well had a friend not driven for Uber and reported back how little he got payed. I know my story is an anecdote but I can't help but feel that it's not an uncommon experience for drivers to feel taken advantage of or that the anti-Uber propaganda wouldn't be nearly as effective if their most visible public faces didn't feel used by the…

Can you share some numbers, what did your friend make.

I don't remember specifics but it was less than federal minimum wage, partially because the area was over saturated with drivers and partly because the biggest cab route in the city is off limits to Uber.
Post reply on HN