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Why I left Google to join Grab

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Re: Why I left Google to join Grab

#101

Post by southphillyman »

sgift wrote: post #55

> When this idea inevitably takes off, people are going to be able to order take-out from their neighbors, from anyone in the city who wants to cook their family recipe. It will change cuisine forever. I had to stop myself from laughing out loud. As if such things as hygiene regulations didn't exist and you can just open a restaurant by hanging a sign out and telling someone to deliver whatever you just produced in y…

I made a similar argument to a friend while eating at a small street food vendor in Bangkok a couple of months ago. I was turned off by the flies and the fact I was a couple of feet from a dirty alley. My friend, who likely grew up eating in similar shops in Nigeria, pointed out I was looking at it from a very Western pov.

He argued that these kind of establishments were safe to eat at because their entire livelihood is dependent on their reputation among locals. Looking around at all the competition along the street we just walked down, it kind of made sense.

In my north american city if a shop fails inspection they are closed down for 48 hours, after which they can open back up and operate until next inspection. In Bangkok if a vendor makes some one sick the news spreads via word of mouth and their business is DONE.

I was able to enjoy an amazing meal after calming down.

Re: Why I left Google to join Grab

#102

Post by syshum »

sgift wrote: post #55

> When this idea inevitably takes off, people are going to be able to order take-out from their neighbors, from anyone in the city who wants to cook their family recipe. It will change cuisine forever. I had to stop myself from laughing out loud. As if such things as hygiene regulations didn't exist and you can just open a restaurant by hanging a sign out and telling someone to deliver whatever you just produced in y…

>>As if such things as hygiene regulations didn't exist and you can just open a restaurant by hanging a sign out and telling someone to deliver whatever you just produced in your kitchen.

personally I find that to be a sad commentary on the state of "Free" societies when we are regulated to the point where you can not even cook for other people with out government permission.

Really highlights how much freedom has been lost and that most people view that as a good thing. Falsely putting their faith in government health inspections often which only occur once every several years and are often highly corrupt, as the reason eating in restaurants are "safe"

Re: Why I left Google to join Grab

#104

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

southphillyman wrote: post #101
sgift wrote: post #55

> When this idea inevitably takes off, people are going to be able to order take-out from their neighbors, from anyone in the city who wants to cook their family recipe. It will change cuisine forever. I had to stop myself from laughing out loud. As if such things as hygiene regulations didn't exist and you can just open a restaurant by hanging a sign out and telling someone to deliver whatever you just produced in y…

I made a similar argument to a friend while eating at a small street food vendor in Bangkok a couple of months ago. I was turned off by the flies and the fact I was a couple of feet from a dirty alley. My friend, who likely grew up eating in similar shops in Nigeria, pointed out I was looking at it from a very Western pov. He argued that these kind of establishments were safe to eat at because their entire livelihood…

You talk as if word of mouth doesn't exist in the US.

Re: Why I left Google to join Grab

#105

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #68
iso-8859-1 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which project should he work on instead?

Not everyone is in a position to make the world a better place through their work, but it would be nice if they didn't actively make it worse.

I would reframe that as "Not everyone is in a position to make the world a better place through their work, so it would be nice if didn't pretend they were"

Re: Why I left Google to join Grab

#107

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

distances wrote: post #21
purplezooey wrote: post #13

The only way to stop labor practices that involve abusing workers, not paying a living wage or for healthcare, is to say (as a customer and voter) that you will not tolerate this type of business existing. In other words, if company X can only deliver your low price pizza and Diet Coke via abuse of its workers, then that business should not exist. It's a hard leap to make for many people, but a necessary one.

The burden to track company behaviour shouldn't be on customers. The normal way to counter this is via unions.

It sounds like unions are the new Rust on Hacker News.

Re: Why I left Google to join Grab

#108

Post by sitkack »

southphillyman wrote: post #101
sgift wrote: post #55

> When this idea inevitably takes off, people are going to be able to order take-out from their neighbors, from anyone in the city who wants to cook their family recipe. It will change cuisine forever. I had to stop myself from laughing out loud. As if such things as hygiene regulations didn't exist and you can just open a restaurant by hanging a sign out and telling someone to deliver whatever you just produced in y…

I made a similar argument to a friend while eating at a small street food vendor in Bangkok a couple of months ago. I was turned off by the flies and the fact I was a couple of feet from a dirty alley. My friend, who likely grew up eating in similar shops in Nigeria, pointed out I was looking at it from a very Western pov. He argued that these kind of establishments were safe to eat at because their entire livelihood…

There isn't a singular reason.

But one of them is that SF doesn't have the storage and refrigeration that a fixed establishment does. The other is throughput. Combined, food doesn't stick around long enough to go bad. I have gotten sick in Vietnam, and it was at the fanciest restaurant on the entire trip. Most likely it was something kept under bad refrigeration for way too long.

Re: Why I left Google to join Grab

#109

Post by pizzetta »

southphillyman wrote: post #101
sgift wrote: post #55

> When this idea inevitably takes off, people are going to be able to order take-out from their neighbors, from anyone in the city who wants to cook their family recipe. It will change cuisine forever. I had to stop myself from laughing out loud. As if such things as hygiene regulations didn't exist and you can just open a restaurant by hanging a sign out and telling someone to deliver whatever you just produced in y…

I made a similar argument to a friend while eating at a small street food vendor in Bangkok a couple of months ago. I was turned off by the flies and the fact I was a couple of feet from a dirty alley. My friend, who likely grew up eating in similar shops in Nigeria, pointed out I was looking at it from a very Western pov. He argued that these kind of establishments were safe to eat at because their entire livelihood…

That only goes so far. One only has to look into "gutter oil"(1) to see that reputation is not always paramount in vendors' minds.

(1)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil

Also, the GI tracts of people in developed nations are more susceptible to some pathogens than people who have been exposed to those pathogens from an early age and have survived those pathogens in their foodsource.

Re: Why I left Google to join Grab

#110

Post by Luff »

altern8tif wrote: post #96
iso-8859-1 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which project should he work on instead?

I wish more people would work on ideas that would impact the poorer half of the human race.

You can't earn money by making things for people that have no money. We need to solve that first.
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