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The Customer Who Almost Killed Slack, Stripe, and Airbnb

siliconopera.com

11–20 of 33 posts

Re: The Customer Who Almost Killed Slack, Stripe, and Airbnb

#11
post #5

> Chesky said no. Not politely declined. No. Gaaaah please stop

I get it. When AI writing tropes show up day after day, post after post, it’s hard to keep your sanity.

It’s not just slop—it’s turbo slop.

(Embrace the suck I guess, won’t last too much longer)

Re: The Customer Who Almost Killed Slack, Stripe, and Airbnb

#14
post #5

> Chesky said no. Not politely declined. No. Gaaaah please stop

> The pattern is consistent enough that it deserves a name and an honest autopsy.

Hundreds of billions of dollars and they can't teach the superintelligent being that will replace us all (if freed from its shackles by the US government) to use the word "honest" correctly. Sad!

The abuse of language via token predictors is legitimately infuriating. Perhaps more infuriating is that blatant spambot posts are upvoted to the front page routinely.

Re: The Customer Who Almost Killed Slack, Stripe, and Airbnb

#17
post #6

Remember that there is an alternate universe in which AirBnB is the way that 70% of all corporate short-term housing gets booked, and they are telling the story of how they nearly didn't pivot correctly. And a zillion alternate universes in which they never got big. Survivor bias is real, and everyone has just-so stories. The ones they choose to tell are partially an artifact of organizational culture, and partially…

This line of argument proves too much.

As it would apply to a lot of things throughout history.

e.g. “Remember that there is an alternate universe in which ancient Anatolian farmers defeated the Yamnaya steppe raiders in Europe, and they are telling the story of how they nearly didn't make it.”

Which would mean even the concept of “European” as known in this universe… is just a bundle of survivor bias, just-so stories, and so on.

Re: The Customer Who Almost Killed Slack, Stripe, and Airbnb

#19
post #5

> Chesky said no. Not politely declined. No. Gaaaah please stop

I get it. When AI writing tropes show up day after day, post after post, it’s hard to keep your sanity. It’s not just slop—it’s turbo slop . (Embrace the suck I guess, won’t last too much longer)

> (Embrace the suck I guess, won’t last too much longer)

I'll take "Things I've heard every single day for the past 3.5 years" for $200, Alex.

Re: The Customer Who Almost Killed Slack, Stripe, and Airbnb

#20
post #6

Remember that there is an alternate universe in which AirBnB is the way that 70% of all corporate short-term housing gets booked, and they are telling the story of how they nearly didn't pivot correctly. And a zillion alternate universes in which they never got big. Survivor bias is real, and everyone has just-so stories. The ones they choose to tell are partially an artifact of organizational culture, and partially…

On the other hand, what's the appeal of Airbnb in 2026?

I'm genuinely confused at what is it better at than Booking, which also has hosts.

Booking is also significantly cheaper at all offerings ranges and has a much wider catalogue including hotels.

Airbnb was cool and interesting when it was genuinely cheaper and offering authentic experiences.

Every vacation or place I go I check Airbnb and bar for one apartment in Sangenjaya, Tokyo, I have never, ever booked there in years, and the only reason I did was that Booking had nothing in those days in that very place I wanted. But it's rare.

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