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

Priceline now worth $100B

google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 232 posts

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#211

Post by pen2l »

tlogan wrote: post #177
dopamean wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience in tech (only a few years, I came from finance, and before that construction, weirdly) people are super cynical and often believe that they know more about _any_ business because they can write some code or something similar. I have never been around more people who consistently think they know better than everyone else. This was a surprising thing for me because I assumed engineers would be more cur…

No - it is just about age. HN readers are younger thus they think they know more. Old people will just say: "I don't know about that" [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvT_gqs5ETk

HN commenters, the more visible ones, are not that young (by young I presume you mean anywhere in the 20s).

https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders

I think the median age in the top 10, for example, is around 40.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#212

Post by jslampe »

eldavido wrote: post #203
dopamean wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience in tech (only a few years, I came from finance, and before that construction, weirdly) people are super cynical and often believe that they know more about _any_ business because they can write some code or something similar. I have never been around more people who consistently think they know better than everyone else. This was a surprising thing for me because I assumed engineers would be more cur…

Yeah I agree. There's also a general proclivity to discount boring, but effective solutions to problems. I'm writing a hotel property management system right now for a hotel chain. In its first year, it will move more money than most startups will make in their lifetimes. Somehow, that isn't "cool", though.

See: craigslist

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#213

Post by roscoebeezie »

davidjnelson wrote: post #159
coldcode wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sabre is one of three. I think more of Priceline is powered by a competitor.

I believe they are Galileo and Apollo.

The three: Amedeus, Sabre, Travelport(Galileo, Apollo, Worldspan).

Disclaimer: I work for one of these.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#214

Post by fsociety »

tlogan wrote: post #177
dopamean wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience in tech (only a few years, I came from finance, and before that construction, weirdly) people are super cynical and often believe that they know more about _any_ business because they can write some code or something similar. I have never been around more people who consistently think they know better than everyone else. This was a surprising thing for me because I assumed engineers would be more cur…

No - it is just about age. HN readers are younger thus they think they know more. Old people will just say: "I don't know about that" [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvT_gqs5ETk

I work with quite a few "old people" who will happily explain everything to you in the most definitive manner possible.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#215

Post by nine_k »

eldavido wrote: post #203
dopamean wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience in tech (only a few years, I came from finance, and before that construction, weirdly) people are super cynical and often believe that they know more about _any_ business because they can write some code or something similar. I have never been around more people who consistently think they know better than everyone else. This was a surprising thing for me because I assumed engineers would be more cur…

Yeah I agree. There's also a general proclivity to discount boring, but effective solutions to problems. I'm writing a hotel property management system right now for a hotel chain. In its first year, it will move more money than most startups will make in their lifetimes. Somehow, that isn't "cool", though.

You know, a bishop is stronger than a pawn, but a bishop never can became a queen, while a pawn has a slim but real chance.

Hence be the boring bishops and exciting pawns paradox.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#216

Post by nine_k »

dopamean wrote: post #186
camhenlin wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seasoned programmers who have worked on software across several industries are probably pretty good at understanding and translating day to day business tasks into automated code. To do that you almost have to understand a business inside and out. That's their job. If more people were humble, less would get done

That make's plenty of sense but I have a hard time believing that so many of the commenters here have the experience you just described. I know it is certainly not true of the people I interact with offline on a regular basis. Also, I'm not sure I really buy the argument that because you can automate some "day to day business tasks" means you know better about how a business should be run. Automating a process that a…

Humble is opposite to arrogant, not to decisive or knowledgeable.

See also: Dunning-Kruger effect.

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#217

Post by nine_k »

trhway wrote: post #189
dopamean wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience in tech (only a few years, I came from finance, and before that construction, weirdly) people are super cynical and often believe that they know more about _any_ business because they can write some code or something similar. I have never been around more people who consistently think they know better than everyone else. This was a surprising thing for me because I assumed engineers would be more cur…

the other side of the same coin is fresh perspective and unbiased application of engineering approach to any problem which results in disruption when it works. Sometimes it doesn't work, e.g. Theranos and others. Money made when it works keeps everybody as believers in that "church of disruption".

What? Wasn't Theranos a scam from the start?

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#218

Post by [deleted] »

dopamean wrote: post #141
misterbwong wrote: post #112

If you were to tell a non-HNer that Kayak, Booking, Priceline, CheapFlights, OpenTable, and other large websites are worth 100B combined , I don't think they would even blink an eye. Come here and the top discussion thread is about how little Priceline does, how they're "just middlemen", and that they don't add any value. It's clear that HN (and techies as a whole, I assume) highly discounts the value of users, marke…

In my experience in tech (only a few years, I came from finance, and before that construction, weirdly) people are super cynical and often believe that they know more about _any_ business because they can write some code or something similar. I have never been around more people who consistently think they know better than everyone else. This was a surprising thing for me because I assumed engineers would be more cur…

[deleted]

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#219

Post by tomascot »

roscoebeezie wrote: post #213
davidjnelson wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe they are Galileo and Apollo.

The three: Amedeus, Sabre, Travelport(Galileo, Apollo, Worldspan). Disclaimer: I work for one of these.

Do you know where can i read more about the software and infrastructure of any of those companies?

Re: Priceline now worth $100B

#220

Post by didibus »

drinkzima wrote: post #193
misterbwong wrote: post #112

If you were to tell a non-HNer that Kayak, Booking, Priceline, CheapFlights, OpenTable, and other large websites are worth 100B combined , I don't think they would even blink an eye. Come here and the top discussion thread is about how little Priceline does, how they're "just middlemen", and that they don't add any value. It's clear that HN (and techies as a whole, I assume) highly discounts the value of users, marke…

Really it's booking.com is worth ~$95B and the rest of those brands combined are worth ~$5B (OpenTable just got written down from an accounting perspective). There is a huge general misunderstanding in the profitability of directing hotel bookings vs flight bookings or other types of travel consumables. Rate parity and high commission rates mean that directing hotel rooms is hugely profitable and Expedia (hotels.com,…

I wonder how much the domain name played in their favor. I recon expedia is older and I'm surprised how far behind they're valuation is to priceline. (Or maybe I'm reading valuation wrong).
Post reply on HN