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

Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

991–1000 of 1001 posts

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#991

Post by phlakaton »

macspoofing wrote: post #937
phlakaton wrote: post #919

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should think that common sense would answer this question. You square it like this: Let's say a person in your company tells you their boss is sexually harrassing them. You're on reasonably good terms with both the accuser and the accused. Some responses you might make in this case: - Deflect. Pretend you didn't hear it. Or, if pressed: "This isn't something I know anything about. You'd better take that up with the…

I'm not sure what your argument is. Unless you are part of HR in your made-up hypothetical situation, it's not your job to intervene or seek retribution because you'll just screw it up and you'll make things worse. Personally, if you know both parties well you may very well find yourself skeptical of those claims ... or not - context matters. All companies will have a process for handling harrassment claims and proce…

So, your answer in this case is: you do not get involved, period. Deflect, maybe some logistical support to direct them to HR, but nothing more?

They go to HR and a week later they're let go – no real explanation given. (Hey, it's at will employment here in CA.) Or, as happens at Uber, nothing happens, and your coworker continues to complain about harrassing behavior (if they're even talking to you at this point). What do you do now?

My point is: the real world is messy, and doesn't come with cut-and-dried definitions and solutions. Processes can help some, but true neutrality comes at a cost. Corrupt and sexist agencies in your company can continue to operate with aplomb. Your relationship will be damaged with coworkers who have had this happen to them – to say nothing of how it damages them when they have this happen and all of their coworkers look nervously away. It can poison your relationship to the company and all the good people that work there.

I read "please believe women" as an invitation to get involved in a constructive way, and I fervently disagree with you that you as a coworker can only make things worse. You can offer emotional support, so your coworker knows you're there for them. If you have pertinent information, you can offer it. You can hold your company's feet to the fire to make sure they're handling it appropriately. And of course – since I didn't specify the gender in the scenario – you can do the same whether the people involved are male, female, or anything in between.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#992

Post by RealityNow »

CPLX wrote: post #931
RealityNow wrote: post #899

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll attest to the original comment by davidf18. Uber/Lyft have radically changed NYC for the better. Ride sharing services are significantly cheaper on the order of multiples, easier to use (eg. no more hailing, paying), and a hell of a lot more pleasant to ride in than taxis. Taxis were notoriously bad. They'd intentionally take slower routes to run up the meter, refuse passengers trying to go to locations the driv…

My point, which both of you appear to have missed, is that we're not actually talking about taxis at all. Taxis are things you hail by flagging them down on the street. They're still there, driving around in circles looking for you, just like before. You're just not using them any more. We're talking about something called livery cars which have existed forever and were also very widely used before Uber as well. You…

It's not just that, ride sharing apps allow anyone to turn their own personal vehicle into a taxi, and work their own hours. This massively increased supply, rendering the fixed medallion taxi monopoly irrelevant. Uber Pool and Lyft Line further increased supply and drove down prices.

Add to that the incentives induced by the rating system and fares determined before you hail the ride, and you also get a far superior riding experience.

So no, the innovation here wasn't just that the hailing is done via an app. This alone would not have spurred the dramatic improvements we've seen.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#993

Post by RealityNow »

spodek wrote: post #987
RealityNow wrote: post #899

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll attest to the original comment by davidf18. Uber/Lyft have radically changed NYC for the better. Ride sharing services are significantly cheaper on the order of multiples, easier to use (eg. no more hailing, paying), and a hell of a lot more pleasant to ride in than taxis. Taxis were notoriously bad. They'd intentionally take slower routes to run up the meter, refuse passengers trying to go to locations the driv…

> our failing decrepit subway system Decrepit I'll give you, and even a low grade, but failing? From Wikipedia: 2016 subway ridership: 1.76 billion = 147 million per month 2016 global Uber ridership in October: 40 million Not the same league. The subways could improve, but I prefer them (and walking) by far to taxis and cars. I guess I just don't have experience since I take maybe one or two taxi rides a year and hav…

I've lived here for the past 5 years (including a summer before), and the subway has gotten significantly worse every year. Commuting to/from work in the outer boroughs in particular is a nightmare. The month I lived in Astoria for example, it seemed that on over 50% of my rides, the train would stop at some point for an extended period of time due to signal failures, and I'd often have to wait for numerous packed trains to pass before new ones would arrive.

I actively avoid the subways as much as possible, especially in the summer when the stations are uncomfortably hot/humid. I mostly walk, ride Citibike, or take Uber/Lyft. Luckily I'm able to do this because I live reasonably close to my office in Manhattan.

Uber Pool has been a godsend because it's so cheap. I can often Uber to/from the office for about $.50 more than the price of a subway side. Granted traffic in the city is horrible so it's not all sunshine and rainbows - my Uber Pool today from midtown east to west of Penn Station took absurdly long due to standstill traffic, but at $2.03 I'm not complaining, and I'll take any excuse to avoid the subways.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/12/nyregion/subway-complaint...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/05/nyregion/subway-delays.ht...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/31/nyregion/why-is-subway-se...

https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-challenges-m...

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#995

Post by erikb »

ryanx435 wrote: post #990
erikb wrote: post #985

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm about 50% through (the e-book; if someone presents interesting knowledge he should also get paid for it). So what you're saying is that I shouldn't have such expectations towards the reporter. The reporter may or may not be smart enough to look behind the curtain, but his official job is not to look behind but to present the "objective" official grand narrative. Talking about the actual power struggle would expos…

glad you enjoyed it. I first found this article series maybe a decade ago and it really changed the way I view the world. There are some flaws with it, but the overall thesis is pretty solid

Yeah, every good model can offer two things: Increasing the amounts of options in case there are two few (this model for instance enables god-seeking sociopaths to accept god's awayness and embrace it as a new freedom), or decreasing complexity and thereby also increasing your options (e.g. this model described to me the difference between the different talk modes and thereby enabled me to gather more information from such a news article like the Uber article).

However no model is able to provide completedness. They either always lack some significant amount of reality, or create significant amount of fantasy on top. That was proven by different scientists in the 1930s and is explained quite well imo in Goedel Escher Bach. I don't remember the details but at least one of them was a Mathematician who basically delivered the proof that Math can't solve all the problems that Math tries to solve. It is impossible.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#996

Post by biztos »

dx034 wrote: post #644
biztos wrote: post #601

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't use a taxi app in Budapest -- the good old phone dispatchers still work just fine and I almost never wait more than 10 minutes for a cab -- but in Berlin I use the "MyTaxi" app all the time[0]. The thing I find interesting is that MyTaxi is loosely coupled with the drivers. There is no obligation to pick up MyTaxi fares, you can go about your business as a cabbie and take MyTaxi fares when business is slow. S…

I had the same in Madrid. Tried to get a taxi for 15 minutes. After that time I had already walked to the next taxi rank and got in the first taxi there. Mytaxi always showed cabs close by but wasn't successful. Wasn't even a busy day, the taxi rank was more than full. As much as I don't like uber, surge pricing can be a really helpful feature that I would like to have with cabs as well.

Or even just let cab companies compete on price, maybe with some limits. When they could compete on price in Budapest it's true that a lot of tourists got ripped off, but it was awesome if you could afford one of the more expensive companies. Once they introduced uniform pricing the better companies got flooded with calls and availability dropped... and tourists still get ripped off, but probably less often and usually when coming from the airport.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#997

Post by hyperdunc »

blackrose wrote: post #808
hyperdunc wrote: post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trust of people like yourself is definitely going to be abused by people who want to smear others.

And trusting people to have free speech is definitely going to be abused by people who want to say controversial things. And trusting people to use encryption is definitely going to be abused by criminals who want to commit crimes. And trusting people to own kitchen knives is definitely going to be abused by people who want to stab others. Yes, we can all make factually true, but totally irrelevant arguments that don…

You're talking about the rights of individuals. A person has the right to free speech and a person has the right not to be harassed.

A person does not have the right to be trusted, but can expect to be taken seriously on a claim of harassment if they have earned trust or if they provide evidence to back up the allegation.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#998

Post by braveo »

davidf18 wrote: post #958
davidf18 wrote: post #827

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber has better quality service from my experience. I still remember, Sat AM in NYC, and Lyft wanted to charge surge pricing when the city is far quieter than during a weekday. Uber did not charge surge pricing on a Saturday morning!

Not certain why downvoted and no explanation provided for providing a fact. I think most would agree that Lyft charging surge pricing during a non-surge time is ridiculous. Uber to their credit did not try to rip me and other customers off.

because some things are more important than you a few bucks on a car ride.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#999

Post by narsil »

matt4077 wrote: post #373
rmason wrote: post #12

Hope everyone's paying attention to the identity of these investors behind this horrid behavior. Travis is not without his flaws but he created an awful lot of value for them. They pressure him into taking a sabbatical, then two days in they pull this cowardly act of firing him remotely. Not only was it a cowardly act, but it was the wrong thing to do for the business. It will lead to an epic destruction of value. Wo…

Kalanick is no Steve Jobs, Kalanick is a bro on an ego trip who stumbled upon a business. But harassing women, and all his other flaws, are not what created uber. Steve Jobs' flaws actually served Apple. The worst he's been accused of is driving people hard to achieve the perfection he sought.

There aren't reports of Kalanick himself harassing women.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#1000

Post by dang »

antisthenes wrote: post #837
kevinburke wrote: post #676

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The required burden of proof can and should be much lower in the workplace. Sure everyone is capable of lying but P(harassment occurred | report of harassment) is much greater than P(harassment did not occur | report of harassment).

> The required burden of proof can and should be much lower in the workplace. Absolutely f-ing not. I'm not even sure what sort of mindset one needs to have to arrive at this conclusion. Did you even consider the fact how damaging a false accusation can be to the other person? No. Just no.

This sort of comment will get you banned here regardless of what you're commenting about. We've warned you about this before. If you don't want to be banned, it's time to post civilly and substantively or not at all.

It should go without saying, but this is independent of how wrong other commenters are. Someone else being wrong does not confer the right to drag the discussion down further.

Post reply on HN