Uber Co-Founder Travis Kalanick Said to Plan Sale of 29% of Stake • Hacker News Board

Re: Uber Co-Founder Travis Kalanick Said to Plan Sale of 29% of Stake

#251

Post by rifung » Fri, Jan 05, 2018, 6:22 PM UTC

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #171

rifung wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes and no. Was it operating in a gray area, yes. Why is it a grey area? I don't think those laws are good but they exist. I don't believe a company's willingness to ignore laws should give them a competitive advantage because that just creates an incentive to do so. Also, companies should not be in the business of deciding what laws are okay or not okay to disobey. > As a frequent Uber/Lyft/Taxi user in NYC I can…

> companies should not be in the business of deciding what laws are okay or not okay to disobey. Why not? We do this everyday as individuals. A company a coherent group of people acting collectively. Laws are a high-latency side chain of authority, not the Word Of God.

> Why not? We do this everyday as individuals. A company a coherent group of people acting collectively.

Because companies are concerned with profits. Even individuals should not be skirting laws for the sake of profit as that would be immoral.

Re: Uber Co-Founder Travis Kalanick Said to Plan Sale of 29% of Stake

#252

Post by forgotpw2018 » Fri, Jan 05, 2018, 6:30 PM UTC

softawre wrote: post #247

strgcmc wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Of course it's not for everyone but that's not a reason to vilify it. Knitting is not for everyone, but by choosing not to be a knitter, I'm generally not missing out on social/career advancement opportunities (e.g. I apply for a job but I'm not in a frat, I'm more qualified than the next guy, but the next guy was a frat brother of the hiring manager, so guess who wins?). Even if I do choose to be a knitter, I'm ge…

Interesting that joining the military grants the same benefits and has the same risks you mention.

Fraternity hazing and military bootcamp are basically the same.

There's a lot of parallels that shouldn't be legal since hazing isn't, but nobody talks about it

Re: Uber Co-Founder Travis Kalanick Said to Plan Sale of 29% of Stake

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Post by TheCoelacanth » Fri, Jan 05, 2018, 6:32 PM UTC

ShabbosGoy wrote: post #239

AlexandrB wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's was the CEO!!! He oversaw all the morally reprehensible things Uber did and did little to stop it. If he is not responsible, then who is? I'm sorry but CEOs can't have it both ways. If you want to be paid at the (insane) current levels you have to take responsibility for the outcomes of your actions. The only other entity that might have some responsibility is the board for not getting rid of Kalanick sooner.

> If he is not responsible, then who is? Befehl ist Befehl. "I was only following orders."

Are you implying that Hitler wasn't responsible for the Holocaust?

The person following the orders certainly shares some of the responsibility, but the person giving the orders bears even more of the responsibility.

Re: Uber Co-Founder Travis Kalanick Said to Plan Sale of 29% of Stake

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Post by Fricken » Fri, Jan 05, 2018, 6:34 PM UTC

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #169

Fricken wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does he deserves every cent of 1.4 billion dollars? He didn't do $1.4 billion worth of labour. His drivers, carmakers, road builders, telecom providers, smartphone makers and software engineers did $1.4 billion worth of labour. Kalanick found himself in a position where he could extract $1.4 billion worth of rent. He's just one fucking guy. It took a solid chunk of western civilization to make Uber possible. It w…

We can apply this logic to (almost?) any extremely wealthy person. Does Musk deserve his coin? What about Gates? The Koch brothers? Mostly other people have done the work for them.

I do apply that logic to any extremely wealthy person. I mean, I don't lose sleep at night worrying about the billionaires of the world, I just think it's ridiculous to suggest that they deserve it, or that they earned it somehow.

Re: Uber Co-Founder Travis Kalanick Said to Plan Sale of 29% of Stake

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Post by alsetmusic » Fri, Jan 05, 2018, 6:35 PM UTC

brango wrote: post #191

jeffdavis wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of practical challenges here because this country was already built for cars as the universal form of transport.

Boo hoo. Do you think Medieval cities like those in Europe were built for public transport as well?

> Boo hoo. Do you think Medieval cities like those in Europe were built for public transport as well?

That’s actually a pretty great point. They also weren’t devised for internet, flight, or dna sequencing. Time to roll those back as well.

Re: Uber Co-Founder Travis Kalanick Said to Plan Sale of 29% of Stake

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Post by TheCoelacanth » Fri, Jan 05, 2018, 6:36 PM UTC

unethical_ban wrote: post #234

AlexandrB wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over the last 50 years American exceptionalism has morphed from: "We are the greatest country on earth, unique in our ability to achieve." to "We are the most special snowflake country in the world, unique in our inability to improve healthcare, public infrastructure, or reduce deaths by firearms." It's really quite sad, I hope you guys get our of your rut soon.

As someone who has grown up in the South, and who has visited San Francisco, Philadelphia, DC, NYC, Boston and other places, I agree public transport is amazing, and I wish cities in the South could pull it off. I also recognize it's incredibly difficult, and expensive, to do so. And even if we had the money and ability to build rail along freeway lines, and build stops at popular social and residential hubs, how do…

> And even if we had the money and ability to build rail along freeway lines, and build stops at popular social and residential hubs, how do people get to the rail station?

In places that have good rail systems, most people get to the rail station by walking. In the other places, it is usually because they have disallowed dense construction near transit stations through zoning.

Re: Uber Co-Founder Travis Kalanick Said to Plan Sale of 29% of Stake

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Post by JumpCrisscross » Fri, Jan 05, 2018, 6:37 PM UTC

brandonmenc wrote: post #235

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Jobs didn't break the law Jobs often took an “ask for forgivenss” approach. Copying Xerox [1], screwing Wozniak [2], the naming schtick with the Beatles, et cetera . [1] http://www.mac-history.net/computer-history/2012-03-22/apple... [2] http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/steve-wozniak-cried-jobs-kept-atari...

> screwing Wozniak This is an unpopular opinion, but if it weren't for Jobs, Woz would have remained an unknown HP engineer.

> This is an unpopular opinion, but if it weren't for Jobs, Woz would have remained an unknown HP engineer

I completely agree. I also think Steve Jobs was a great man. Part of his greatness was knowing which rules he could bend, which rules he could break, and deftly negotiating the aftermath.

Re: Uber Co-Founder Travis Kalanick Said to Plan Sale of 29% of Stake

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Post by forgotpw2018 » Fri, Jan 05, 2018, 6:41 PM UTC

spyspy wrote: post #238

forgotpw2018 wrote: post #42

Seems like a good time to dump this =). I think I know the kind of world Travis comes from. He was in a fraternity, and he treated it like a business like I did. When he owned a real business he applied those lessons far too liberally. Fraternities are ruthlessly competitive, going as far as planting fake pledges and building internal dossiers on all the other frats on campus. Very valuable was your loyal man with a…

Wow that was hard to read. I thoroughly believe none of that is true.

Hahaha. Look it up, having a blood relative or longtime friend of a member in your house pledge another house is a pretty common tactic. You can find out if they haze, how much money and members they have, their secret rituals. You can even snipe other pledges from their incoming class sometimes.

The activity fee thing is true too. Many universities have a student government of sorts, and some of them allow the student government to decide what happens with a significant amount of the school's budget. At my school it was 5% ish. At the school with 20k students that's a ton of money for 40 elected students to slosh around.

The Greek system would commonly ally as voting blocks to make sure their candidates were elected, so student government is frequently run by Greeks.

Watching other houses parties was really important too. You need to see how far other houses go in breaking the inevitably unenforcable rules for parties. If you stray from the pack the school will shut you down. Finding out how many people went to social events at other houses was probably the most accurate gauge of a house popularity and reputation.

I came from a school with a very competitive Greek system, so I'm sure a lot of this doesn't apply everywhere

Re: Uber Co-Founder Travis Kalanick Said to Plan Sale of 29% of Stake

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Post by greglindahl » Fri, Jan 05, 2018, 6:46 PM UTC

Aunche wrote: post #249

geofft wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are taxicab medallions worth it? I'm in favor of the rule of law. If I was in favor of the rule of law when it did good things and not when it did bad things (and I ready admit that the medallion system is one of the bad things), and wanted outside companies with private capital to ignore the rule of law to fix the bad things... I wouldn't be in favor of the rule of law at all. The ultimate question is who we choos…

It doesn't have to be black and white. The purpose of democracy is to reflect the will of the people, but it's not efficient. If more people agree with Uber than some antiquated laws, I have no problem with supporting Uber. Tesla also broke laws by selling their cars without going through a dealership, but I don't think anyone has a problem with that.

Those cars were sold over the Internet; buying a car from another state is regulated by federal law.

I agree that not every law is just, but some are less just than others.

Re: Uber Co-Founder Travis Kalanick Said to Plan Sale of 29% of Stake

#260

Post by Fnoord » Fri, Jan 05, 2018, 7:37 PM UTC

TotempaaltJ wrote: post #186

bkor wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Subways and buses usually have schedules that don't always line up with when you happen to need it. Also, there is a mental tax in having to navigate it. There's no need for any difference between navigating by car in Google Maps or navigating by public transport in Google Maps. Meaning, in Netherlands Google Maps show the estimated arrival times of everything, transfers, etc. It'll take into account delays, cancel…

Am from Amsterdam, have lived in the States, will second this: the Netherlands has a great public transport system and 90% of the time the only consideration when choosing between driving/cycling (predictable/personal transport) and PT is the cost. Sometimes there are routes that take significantly longer with PT, and in those scenarios it's just another argument for taking my bike. There are a few scenarios in which…

I found Berlin even better. Very cheap, great service (and they speak German and English), great connections, easy app (Google Maps shows it all as well), tourist friendly tickets, and the best of all: no mandatory NFC card!!

It also depends on where you live in NL. Every 10 min a train to Ehv is neat, and I got a bus from Ams to my home city every few minutes whole day long, but the rural areas don't have such luxury. The joke for the trains goes, that "they don't drive on time, they drive on rails."