A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018) • Hacker News Board

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#291

Post by ghaff » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 10:13 PM UTC

mywittyname wrote: post #285

ghaff wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rarely eat at the big fast food chains--and it's usually because I have no other options. But what's the "truth" about the quality of the food? The CEO could quite honestly say that their goals are consistency, speed, food safety, and affordability. Quality? I expect the honest response would be something along the lines of 1.) Millions of customers apparently like our product and 2.) We try to deliver the best qua…

I eat McDonalds rather frequently for lunch because there's one nearby, a double cheeseburger is $1.89, and has 26g of protein and under 500 calories. I think they taste fine; I wouldn't pay more for a better tasting one. I'm pretty sure nearly every McDonalds customer thinks the same way. They want quick, cheap, safely prepared food that tastes good enough to eat.

I pretty much can't stand them personally--except for the fries and maybe a couple of breakfast items. But I readily admit I'm a bit of a foodie. I'm certainly not going to begrudge others who find them a good value or even, gasp, like them.

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#292

Post by colechristensen » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 10:15 PM UTC

asdfman123 wrote: post #287

ylesaout wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While he made a successful comeback (however far from his first success), saying he toiled in misery for years is a little bit exagerated. Indeed, he was still the owner of a house (and probably of other goods). And this house was big enough to have a value probably equal to a today million dollars. That's not what I call to be toiled in misery.

Happiness is relative to expectation. Most people reading this will never feel extreme hunger and have all their material needs met forever, but they will probably also go through things that to them, feel like miserable failures. You might even be forced to leave your cushy jobs and take an annual salary that is what 50 African laborers make in year. And it will possibly take years, maybe well over a decade, to live…

Zoom out from specific circumstances and it seems like human misery is fairly constant.

Whether you're scrambling around the forest looking for berries and killing things to eat with pointy sticks or working an office job living in a suburb – I don't really think your emotional experience really changes all that much.

I think your misery and delight are driven by the best and worst things in your life and it doesn't really matter all that much what your circumstances are. When things get better you find new things to be miserable about, when things get worse you stop caring about the little things and your misery is driven by the new worst thing.

I don't see standard of living really driving all that much happiness. Maybe some, but much less than I think most people expect.

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#293

Post by jen20 » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 10:16 PM UTC

sprafa wrote: post #252

downandout wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He carefully cultivates the image of a man who utterly despises his own customers, but is far too miserly to allow an aircraft to crash. That image will keep them going right up until they have a fatal crash, at which point the press, the government, and victims’ attorneys will use every word he has ever said about being cheap to crucify him and the company. Given their volume of flights, a fatal crash is statistical…

Why would Ryanair ever have a crash? Their airplanes are usually quite new. The EU hasn’t had an accidental plane crash in ages. Have you ever flown Ryanair?

Both Boeing 737 Max planes which recently crashed were also almost brand new.

I have flown Ryanair a few times, I’d rather not go than take them today though.

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#294

Post by hirundo » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 10:21 PM UTC

I did a ratner with a girl once. She said something like "well you have good genes anyway, right?". I listed a few of my imperfections. She said "oh", and went away.

It was a good lesson.

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#295

Post by dragontamer » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 10:21 PM UTC

celticmusic wrote: post #209

ceejayoz wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost like there are multiple topics worthy of outrage in the world. It's an educational/advocacy show with a veneer of comedy.

Except I've seen him do shows on topics I'm more aware of and realized that he doesn't treat them completely fairly. It's like Michael Moore. He's obviously too biased to have a fair view.

Oliver leans towards "entertainment" than "information" in my experience. There's a time and place for entertainment, but I definitely need to double-check his facts before relying upon them.

Some of Oliver's arguments are "weak", feeling like he's sometimes padding for time. With that being said, Oliver is far better at this format than say... Bill Nye. (I was... saddened, by the weak treatment of subjects on that show)

Colbert seems to be focusing more on a typical late-night formula (talk with celebrities to promote books and movies, primarily on "safe" subjects: see his "Meanwhile" segments, which are hilarious but otherwise pallet cleansers). Colbert barely has much more than 5-minute talks on any political subject these days... a good thing for the mass-audience, but too short to really dive deeply into a subject matter outside of highlighting a few headlines.

------

Overall, Oliver is one of the better shows in this category. But certainly has its flaws. No one really beats John Stewart, who really mastered the segment and earned my trust. (Stewart even had to do this in a far more difficult setting: once per night, 4 times a week. Oliver only has to prep for one segment per week). Stewart certainly had his mistakes, but he also humbled himself with constant reminders that Stewart was a "sad clown", reminding the audience that his skits were primarily driven for entertainment (even if large bits were educational)

The main difference between Oliver and Stewart is that Oliver seems to have fewer self-deprecating bits, or reminders that Oliver is primarily a sad clown as well. Entertainment outrage... relatively well researched, but still entertainment nonetheless.

Maybe I should watch Trevor Noah and see how he's keeping up the old Stewart timeslot.

> He's obviously too biased to have a fair view.

Stewart was biased, but overwhelmingly fair in my experience. Yeah, he leaned left, but no one can deny their own personal bias on political subjects, and that's fine IMO.

Oliver is biased, but IMO isn't as fair as Stewart in all subject matters. Fortunately, Oliver is "fair enough" and still has a decent show.

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#296

Post by coybanana » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 10:23 PM UTC

insickness wrote: post #4

> so why did he do it? This is the most interesting question, which the article doesn't answer.

It's not necessarily the case that there's even some underlying reason. Though I agree, they should have touched on it in particular.

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#297

Post by Smithalicious » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 10:27 PM UTC

goodcanadian wrote: post #86

knicholes wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry to be pedantic, but I'm confused by what seemed to be a recommendation to read this link because it's going to be awesome, but then you say "incredible interviews." I'd feel a lot better if you clarified, before I read, "incredible" as in "extraordinary" or "difficult to believe."

I'm having trouble deciding whether or not you are being serious. Yes, technically, the word "incredible" originally meant "not credible." However, in common usage, it simply means, "very good."

I don't see why you would suspect them of not being serious. Not everyone on this site is a native English speaker. I know when I was first learning English I'd get tripped up by things like awful and awesome, terrific and terrible, being the only one left after your friend has left, turning the alarm off after it goes off, and so on. Plenty of things in the English language that can look like the opposite of what they actually mean.

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#298

Post by chosenbreed37 » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 10:28 PM UTC

Smithalicious wrote: post #283

ylesaout wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While he made a successful comeback (however far from his first success), saying he toiled in misery for years is a little bit exagerated. Indeed, he was still the owner of a house (and probably of other goods). And this house was big enough to have a value probably equal to a today million dollars. That's not what I call to be toiled in misery.

Whether or not he toiled in misery is independent of how much money he had. It only depends on whether he toiled, and whether he was miserable doing so.

Indeed. And I dare say living in a million dollar house is not so comforting if you've just forfeited $125m worth of profits year on year :-)

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#299

Post by favorited » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 10:30 PM UTC

minikites wrote: post #38

dragontamer wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, the best "public shaming" talk I've seen are the ones given by Monica Lewinsky. When you consider that Monica Lewinsky was 22 years old during the time of the scandal, a lot of the stuff going on was simply outside of her control. Seeing things from her perspective is pretty interesting, to say the least: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq7Eh6JTKIg John Oliver starts the discussion, but there is a Lewinsky…

Monica Lewinsky is an infinitely stronger person than most of us and I'm glad she's able to approach her past with grace. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02/monica-lewinsky-in-t...

She's definitely worth following on Twitter as well.

Re: A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

#300

Post by fuzz4lyfe » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 10:32 PM UTC

epylar wrote: post #235

refurb wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People seem to be using the economic word “externalities” as “things I don’t like”.

That is what externality means -- "a side effect or consequence of an industrial or commercial activity that affects other parties without this being reflected in the cost of the goods or services involved." (unless this person is affecting the cost somehow as a result of this dislike) In a sense, economics is entirely about what people like and dislike.

So if we priced airlines in regards to all of their externalities, they would have to pay for climate change but would get a portion of the all revenue derived by business trips (ie. the time saved traveling by air compared to other modes of transport and what the employees traveling would have been able to produce during that time). I wonder if they would end up better off under that system.