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Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

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Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#31

Post by ghshephard »

ivraatiems wrote: post #11

Notice the language here. He doesn't seem, at least from my reading, to be chastising Uber for doing things that are morally wrong. He's instead chastising them for doing morally wrong things and not pulling it off. For example: "Sometimes the people who break the rules win and sometimes they push it too far," implying that Uber could be doing wrong things in some more correct way and continue to thrive, and that the…

I think close to 100% of successful entrepreneurs would agree with the statement "You can, and must break some rule, push the envelope, and engage in questionable behavior when building a company - the challenge is in always remembering where the line is, and never crossing it."

Uber clearly crossed the line when their executives voiced out load their frustration with the media and then continued talking and imagined how nice it would be to give the media a taste of their own medicine and do all sorts of reporting on them personally.

It's fine to have those little fantasies in your head - but that's as far as it can ever go. What's troubling is that the Uber exec honestly thought it was acceptable to give words to those thoughts... I'm wondering if alcohol was involved.

Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#32

Post by famousactress »

etherael wrote: post #26
famousactress wrote: post #9

The bummer is that the bullshit misogyny feels like it's been running pretty rampant for some time, though maybe it's only lately that we're seeing the sort of graduating class of this particular brand of ethically vapid growth-hacked shops seeing some success (Uber, Tinder, Genius...) I like making things, but the part of our industry that manages to sustain such an asshole-farm gets me wishing I'd chosen a differen…

How is misogyny relevant to what he said or what is being discussed here?

Seriously?

Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#33

Post by moab »

tomrod wrote: post #27
trhway wrote: post #18

between Palantir and Uber? Tough choice, until of course invested in one and missed on the other (plus being invested in the other's competitor).

It's funny you bring up Palantir. I learned a bit about it today and still don't quite see what it adds to things.

OP is hinting at the fact that Palantir supposedly does some fairly unscrupulous work for governments. Whether this is true or not isn't exactly 'known', but it's been widely hinted and spread around the valley.

Take it with a grain of salt though, some of my former TA's and people that I'd classify as highly ethical work there now, so if they're doing anything dirty they're hiding it from the engineers pretty well.

Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#34

Post by etherael »

famousactress wrote: post #32
etherael wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is misogyny relevant to what he said or what is being discussed here?

Seriously?

Seriously. He definitely didn't say anything about it in the actual linked video or story, so I'm assuming you're referring to some other event that isn't covered here, and thus asking you what that actually is.

Or on the off chance I just missed the flashing example of misogyny at the end of the linked article, curious for a clarification on what exactly that is.

Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#35

Post by 001sky »

famousactress wrote: post #32
etherael wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is misogyny relevant to what he said or what is being discussed here?

Seriously?

Amorality and lack of proportion

aren't really gendered concepts, tho.

Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#36

Post by techdragon »

ghshephard wrote: post #31
ivraatiems wrote: post #11

Notice the language here. He doesn't seem, at least from my reading, to be chastising Uber for doing things that are morally wrong. He's instead chastising them for doing morally wrong things and not pulling it off. For example: "Sometimes the people who break the rules win and sometimes they push it too far," implying that Uber could be doing wrong things in some more correct way and continue to thrive, and that the…

I think close to 100% of successful entrepreneurs would agree with the statement "You can, and must break some rule, push the envelope, and engage in questionable behavior when building a company - the challenge is in always remembering where the line is, and never crossing it." Uber clearly crossed the line when their executives voiced out load their frustration with the media and then continued talking and imagined…

The difference is in what is being broken. A rule can be some conventional wisdom that is wrong, where the rule breaker is innovating through the barrier of complacency or it can be an ethical or moral consensus, a social rule, they break that may or may not be right. And those are much more troublesome. The absolute vs relative ethics debate alone makes it a nightmare to begin with.

Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#38

Post by 001sky »

mattee wrote: post #6

Peter Thiel is correct. But, it should be noted, that as an investor in Lyft, Thiel has a big interest in scolding Uber publicly.

That's according to PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who is also an investor in Uber competitor Lyft.

(first sentence of the article)

Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#39

Post by zaroth »

etherael wrote: post #26
famousactress wrote: post #9

The bummer is that the bullshit misogyny feels like it's been running pretty rampant for some time, though maybe it's only lately that we're seeing the sort of graduating class of this particular brand of ethically vapid growth-hacked shops seeing some success (Uber, Tinder, Genius...) I like making things, but the part of our industry that manages to sustain such an asshole-farm gets me wishing I'd chosen a differen…

How is misogyny relevant to what he said or what is being discussed here?

This particular incident involves Kalanick's targeting of PandoDaily Editor-in-Chief Sarah Lacy. Sarah shined the light on various Uber failings of late. I personally wouldn't speculate how Kalanick's rant might have changed if Sarah were male, but it has become part of the story.

Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#40

Post by pbreit »

Is there any hope that Uber could see some serious erosion in its business from all these gaffes? Could Lyft succeed by merely being the anti-Uber? On one hand, it does seem like Uber's ultra-agression has been an important contributor to its success. But could it have pulled all this off without the dirtbag gene?

I'll finally be giving Lyft a try but wish they had black cars & SUVs.

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