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Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

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Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#211

Post by BiosElement »

Waterluvian wrote: post #187

When I have an upcoming dentist appointment looming over my head, My entire week can be ruined by anxiety. I have no idea how people can be sentenced to serious time in prison that will happen... sometime in the future...

For what it's worth, Befriend your dentist and the staff there and take headphones to listen to a long podcaste, video or music. It's not perfect of course, but it does wonders and letting them know also helps so they can help get you through it. Finding another dentist or looking into sedation is also an option if it's too bad. As someone with crap tons of dental work and awful teeth, I assure you you're not alone there. :)

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#212

Post by baryphonic »

rorykoehler wrote: post #200
ponker wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you cannot compare becoming the world's best self-driving engineer to winning the lottery. This is like becoming Lebron James, it's tremendous talent combined with tremendous commitment.

It's not that he's the best self-driving engineer (though no doubt he is excellent). It's that he is the best self-driving engineer who is also a shrewd political operator.

Not shrewd enough, apparently. Or maybe he just got giant hubris and thought he could fool all of the people all of the time.

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#213

Post by Waterluvian »

BiosElement wrote: post #211
Waterluvian wrote: post #187

When I have an upcoming dentist appointment looming over my head, My entire week can be ruined by anxiety. I have no idea how people can be sentenced to serious time in prison that will happen... sometime in the future...

For what it's worth, Befriend your dentist and the staff there and take headphones to listen to a long podcaste, video or music. It's not perfect of course, but it does wonders and letting them know also helps so they can help get you through it. Finding another dentist or looking into sedation is also an option if it's too bad. As someone with crap tons of dental work and awful teeth, I assure you you're not alone t…

I really appreciate you sharing. Thanks.

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#214

Post by dllthomas »

w0mbat wrote: post #50

This guy had such a sweet deal at Google originally, it staggers me that he'd go to these lengths to steal even more. He was getting a massive salarY, bonuses in the millions, and he had persuaded Google to pay him even more money through a side-hustle company of his while remaining an employee. Then he quits and steals their stuff.

The existing theories are plenty likely, but I figure I'll toss out a (probably significantly overly generous) alternative. I don't know nearly enough about the situation to really give much of an estimate of the relative likelihoods.

Imagine you deeply believe that getting self-driving cars to market ASAP is vital to saving countless lives. And imagine you strongly believe you know how to make that happen. If you aren't being able to do that in your current environment, you might feel compelled to change even if you're getting huge piles of money, and you might be willing to cut corners along the way. How much would you give up, if you were convinced it would save thousands of lives each day?

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#215

Post by CaptainZapp »

bduerst wrote: post #127
illustriousbear wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People in the security industry have told me that this sort of thing often comes down to ego and self-importance. In Intelligence, people have been caught selling state secrets for 10-20k a pop. The kind of secrets that can land you decades in jail. It makes no sense from a monetary standpoint.

It's likely Levandowski has narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), as is evident by his founding The Way of The Future , which is his own church to worship artificial intelligence.

In all seriousness: You shouldn't remote diagnose mental illnesses for anybody.

It's totally frowned upon by psychiatrists and psychologists, who are experts in the field, because it's actually impossible and can do a lot of damage.

This has nothing to do with Levandowski not being a full blown greedy asshole and now a criminal too. But the problem is really that doing that can potentially hurt people with mental issues.

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#216

Post by dkarl »

ponker wrote: post #153
teej wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the Google version of winning the lottery. Right place, right skills, right time.

No, you cannot compare becoming the world's best self-driving engineer to winning the lottery. This is like becoming Lebron James, it's tremendous talent combined with tremendous commitment.

He was the best self-driving engineer at a time when that was worth $120 million to Google. Is the world's best hydrogen fuel cell engineer getting $120 million bonuses? How about the world's best metallurgist? Historical linguist? You have to be the world's best in a field that could unlock dominance in an enormous potential market that is being actively contested and that one of the world's richest corporations thinks might be won in the next decade.

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#217

Post by Thorrez »

jarym wrote: post #7

How many other criminals can avoid jail time right now due to the Covid threat?

18,000 in California according to this article:

> Earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to alleviate the outbreak by releasing as many as 8,000 inmates and further reducing the population by about 10,000 through delayed admissions.[1]

https://web.archive.org/web/20200802050956/https://www.latim...

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#218

Post by radium3d »

w0mbat wrote: post #50

This guy had such a sweet deal at Google originally, it staggers me that he'd go to these lengths to steal even more. He was getting a massive salarY, bonuses in the millions, and he had persuaded Google to pay him even more money through a side-hustle company of his while remaining an employee. Then he quits and steals their stuff.

Judging by the amount of money he was collecting from them, his ultimate reason must have been rage against a manager or coworker unless he just has a totally unusual view on money needs?

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#219

Post by Thorrez »

oh_sigh wrote: post #9

Wow, I can't believe they made him pay back .4% of his compensation.

> The sentencing is the latest in a series of legal blows that have seen Levandowski vilified as a thieving tech bro, unceremoniously ejected from Uber, and forced into bankruptcy by a $179 million award against him.

He had to pay $179 million in the civil case. He's bankrupt.

Re: Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison as new lawsuit against Uber filed

#220

Post by esoterica »

breck wrote: post #197
asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm saying that perhaps trade secret laws are good for billionaires, bad for everyone else. Sure. In a certain, short-sighted sense, so are any property rights. Trade secret law is important for anyone who wants to invest in the creation of high value intellectual property that won't be protected with patents. Without such protection, there is much less incentive for investment. Billionaires are one group of people…

> so are any property rights. The term "Intellectual Property" is a red herring. You cannot have property rights and IP rights. Logically it doesn't work (if you say my computer is my property, but that I can't arrange the bits how I want, then it is not my property). This case is well made in many places so I won't regurgitate much further. But it's important to clarify that the term is a euphemism and is in direct…

Both private property and intellectual property are arbitrary social constructs. You can argue whether one or the other is good or bad if you want, but neither are fundamental laws of the universe and neither are more intrinsically true than the other. You are trying to draw a binary categorical distinction between the two where none exists.

> However, it seems to be an unnatural state of affairs, to have the government involved in enforcing secrets among its citizens.

It's no more "unnatural" than the enforcement of physical property laws. Courts and prisons and cops are artificial human institutions, not part of "nature".

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