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Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

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Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#91

The cherry on top is the history of eugenics in the US, with forced sterilizations extending into the 1970's (!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics_in_the_United_States#... It's a chilling read, not for the faint of heart.

U.S. declaring that mercury is no longer harmful and is safe for children: a couple weeks ago. It's not like the exact same type of stuff isn't still happening today, just no one cares until twenty years later or whatever.

Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#92
Does Travis leaving now prevent him from returning at a later time as CEO under opportune circumstances? PR could spin a return if Uber starts failing and hail Travis as having learned how to lead.

In other words, does anyone think this could be temporary?

Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically my impression since i first heard about them. But many pushed them as just good old American "disrupters" of a "stale" market. That is until the first dirty underwear regarding office shenanigans were aired, and then the twittering classes did a one-eighty in their view of Uber. And from that point on the company has been circling the drain.

The myth that you can build a billion-dollar business without some shady dealings needs to die. Startups are usually faced with hard choices if they want to survive. Pretending like Kalanick himself endorsed sexual harassment is ridiculous. We don't know whether he knew, how much he knew, or how involved he was. All evidence points to "the trail of information stopped at HR." I think we like to pretend that startups…

The myth that you can build a billion-dollar business without some shady dealings needs to die

Do you have an explanation for why Uber has been outed with so much more shadiness than most (if not all) other billion dollar tech companies?

Have they done more? Are they worse at PR? Something else? Do you dispute that they have been exposed for more shadiness?

Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#94

The cherry on top is the history of eugenics in the US, with forced sterilizations extending into the 1970's (!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics_in_the_United_States#... It's a chilling read, not for the faint of heart.

U.S. declaring that mercury is no longer harmful and is safe for children: a couple weeks ago. It's not like the exact same type of stuff isn't still happening today, just no one cares until twenty years later or whatever.

[deleted]

Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically my impression since i first heard about them. But many pushed them as just good old American "disrupters" of a "stale" market. That is until the first dirty underwear regarding office shenanigans were aired, and then the twittering classes did a one-eighty in their view of Uber. And from that point on the company has been circling the drain.

The myth that you can build a billion-dollar business without some shady dealings needs to die. Startups are usually faced with hard choices if they want to survive. Pretending like Kalanick himself endorsed sexual harassment is ridiculous. We don't know whether he knew, how much he knew, or how involved he was. All evidence points to "the trail of information stopped at HR." I think we like to pretend that startups…

> Pretending like Kalanick himself endorsed sexual harassment is ridiculous. We don't know whether he knew, how much he knew, or how involved he was. All evidence points to "the trail of information stopped at HR."

And his "infamous" Miami memo, where he documents to the company what kinds of sexual activity between employees at the company are okay, and then follows up with a lament that "because he's the CEO, then he's not getting any employee action :("

And the fact that HR on several occasions had to tell him to tone down the sexual content of multiple communications, and I'm inclined to be a little more cynical than "poor wide-eyed Travis".

Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#96

The cherry on top is the history of eugenics in the US, with forced sterilizations extending into the 1970's (!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics_in_the_United_States#... It's a chilling read, not for the faint of heart.

U.S. declaring that mercury is no longer harmful and is safe for children: a couple weeks ago. It's not like the exact same type of stuff isn't still happening today, just no one cares until twenty years later or whatever.

I'm having trouble finding any source for this that links to any sources. Do you have evidence this actually happened?

Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#97
post #30

There is a podcast called The Dollop where one person essentially teaches another person about a particular subject. They recently did Uber and it was eye-opening to see just how shady this company has always been. I am not a fan of Uber but after listening to this I will never use them again. Podcast link: http://thedollop.libsyn.com/271-uber

Woah, learning all sorts of stuff.

I remember Scour. That thing was scummy as all get-out.

Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#98

The cherry on top is the history of eugenics in the US, with forced sterilizations extending into the 1970's (!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics_in_the_United_States#... It's a chilling read, not for the faint of heart.

Fun fact: The Nazis looked to American Eugenics and race purity laws as an inspiration. It was only after the horrors of WW2 came out that the US rejected these policies.

And apartheid was modeled on the Canadian native reserve and treaty system.

Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#99
post #79
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had there been no Uber, there wouldn't have been Lyft. Uber is not just the first-comer or pioneer but it also fought most of the first-fights with city officials and Taxi unions which actually gave confidence to Lyft for their survival!

Just because Uber fought those fights doesn't mean nobody else could have fought them.

Actually that is exactly what it means. How many countries does Lyft operate in?

Exactly. 1.

Re: Waymo filing says Travis Kalanick knew engineer had Google info

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically my impression since i first heard about them. But many pushed them as just good old American "disrupters" of a "stale" market. That is until the first dirty underwear regarding office shenanigans were aired, and then the twittering classes did a one-eighty in their view of Uber. And from that point on the company has been circling the drain.

The myth that you can build a billion-dollar business without some shady dealings needs to die. Startups are usually faced with hard choices if they want to survive. Pretending like Kalanick himself endorsed sexual harassment is ridiculous. We don't know whether he knew, how much he knew, or how involved he was. All evidence points to "the trail of information stopped at HR." I think we like to pretend that startups…

Of course the perfect is the enemy of the good, in this as in all things. That said, if you don't feel that you can start a business and run it both legally and ethically, maybe consider not starting a business.

Nobody forced Travis Kalanick to found a company that couldn't work in the then-extant regulatory structure. Nobody forced him to work around the problem by just flat out ignoring the law and hoping he could lobby to get it changed before he got called to task for it. Nobody forced him to come up with a long-term profitability plan that required being able to eventually charge monopoly prices. Nobody forced him to try to undercut his competitors by doing an end-run around employee protections. He always had the option to go be an angel investor or something instead.

He chose a model which could not be done ethically and upon realizing that decided to pursue it anyway. I'm not certain what that makes him, but it sure doesn't make him a victim.

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