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The Fall of Travis Kalanick

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Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#131

Post by dragonwriter »

platz wrote: post #40

"Silicon Valley innovation now is directly aimed at oppressing the underclass, and everybody knows it and can see it. They hate Uber. People hate Uber. It means the death of the era of good feelings that came with this constant Moore's Law style innovation. And that was an unforced error, by Silicon Valley. It was in their DNA. They didn't have to give Travis Kalanick, a guy they despised and never trusted, for good…

What does Sterling mean by the “underclass”? That usually refers to the street criminals, permanently unemployable, and others who have fallen off the bottom end of the formal economy.

But the argument Sterling seems to be making seems like it more naturally would apply to the working class; while the underclass may be oppressed and SV may play a role, the way he ties Uber in just doesn't seem to connect to underclass as opposed to working class oppression.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#132

Post by heyyyouu »

rhizome wrote: post #69
uberemployee wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FF is great. She is leading online courses for all Uber employees about business strategy and culture from real Harvard professors. It’s very educational for everyone. It’s a very unique opportunity for us because she is an expert on what makes companies great. Not just culturally but business strategy too. Having her as a key member of the team is an advantage that t companies don’t have because whereas other people…

She is leading online courses for all Uber employees about business strategy and culture from real Harvard professors Harvard only?

Yeah, that seems very close minded.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#133

Post by meri_dian »

Jasper_ wrote: post #129
meri_dian wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silicon Valley doesn't oppress the underclass, what a load of melodramatic nonsense. Most Silicon Valley companies have nothing to do with the underclass, and when they do it's usually in the form of making things like movies, TV shows and music more affordable (think Spotify and Netflix among others).

Wait, you don't think "the gig economy" of Uber, Lyft, Instacart, Doordash has anything to do with the underclass? That's the workforce that actually does the job that they consistently try to stifle and pay less under the guise of being "a tech company".

The proliferation of companies like that has probably increased the total number of jobs available in the economy. I don't see that as a bad thing.

If you have a problem with wages, then you really have a problem with the whole economic structure of our society. Most of those companies couldn't exist if they paid their grunt workers more so it's not like they have much of a choice.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#134

Post by heyyyouu »

Jasper_ wrote: post #129
meri_dian wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silicon Valley doesn't oppress the underclass, what a load of melodramatic nonsense. Most Silicon Valley companies have nothing to do with the underclass, and when they do it's usually in the form of making things like movies, TV shows and music more affordable (think Spotify and Netflix among others).

Wait, you don't think "the gig economy" of Uber, Lyft, Instacart, Doordash has anything to do with the underclass? That's the workforce that actually does the job that they consistently try to stifle and pay less under the guise of being "a tech company".

There's a number of economists (not to mention the actual drivers of those services) who argue that these companies are bringing up the underclass by offering work opportunities to those who otherwise would find employment very difficult.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#135

Post by platz »

dragonwriter wrote: post #131
platz wrote: post #40

"Silicon Valley innovation now is directly aimed at oppressing the underclass, and everybody knows it and can see it. They hate Uber. People hate Uber. It means the death of the era of good feelings that came with this constant Moore's Law style innovation. And that was an unforced error, by Silicon Valley. It was in their DNA. They didn't have to give Travis Kalanick, a guy they despised and never trusted, for good…

What does Sterling mean by the “underclass”? That usually refers to the street criminals, permanently unemployable, and others who have fallen off the bottom end of the formal economy. But the argument Sterling seems to be making seems like it more naturally would apply to the working class; while the underclass may be oppressed and SV may play a role, the way he ties Uber in just doesn't seem to connect to underclas…

yeah, I think he's playing a little fast and loose with the word underclass here. Perhaps it's simply for dramatic effect. However the main point to me doesn't hang on exact parsing of this word - one could imagine related terms (working class, the have-nots, the little people, the proleteriat) with similar effect. It does matter exactly who he's talking about, but parsing this differently is not exactly at the level of Refutation of the main point. the whole theme is rather high level and abstract to begin with, anyway, which is not quite at the level of precision of concrete examples.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#136

Post by platz »

rajacombinator wrote: post #126
platz wrote: post #40

"Silicon Valley innovation now is directly aimed at oppressing the underclass, and everybody knows it and can see it. They hate Uber. People hate Uber. It means the death of the era of good feelings that came with this constant Moore's Law style innovation. And that was an unforced error, by Silicon Valley. It was in their DNA. They didn't have to give Travis Kalanick, a guy they despised and never trusted, for good…

Oh cmon. Travis may have demonstrated himself to be an unmitigated douchebag over the years but he’s still orders of magnitude above VCs on the scale of being a decent human. Being “despised and never trusted” by those guys is a good signal. Uber may have issues also, but they’re arguably much better than SV establishment companies in terms of screwing their userbase. Uber just doesn’t hide it behind “don’t be evil”…

how many levels of rationalization are you on

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#137

Post by [deleted] »

kahnpro wrote: post #128
misun78 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Peacetime doesn’t necessarily mean not being competitive. Uber is at a stage where it doesn’t need to bend the rules anymore. Read up on how Dara handled the Brazil legislation for example. Rather than fighting any regulation as TK may have, he effectively worked with the government to legalize and legitimize Uber. I expect him to do the same in London.

Bend the rules? Are you for real? Uber not only deliberately and flagrantly breaks the law, but it developed systems to prevent police and regulators from doing their jobs. Uber is like someone who wants to rob banks until he gets rich, and then use the money to stay out of jail and transition into legitimate business.

[deleted]

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#138

Post by mc32 »

matte_black wrote: post #23
dawhizkid wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking for myself, I worked at Uber in 2015/2016 and did not wear Uber swag in public because I was afraid of awkward encounters with Uber drivers, which happened on several occasions sitting in the car when it somehow became known I was an Uber employee.

Don't companies usually hand out t-shirt swag with their company names on it? Most of the time that I see someone with a company logo on their shirt I do not readily assume they work at that company.

Internal schwag differs from external schwag.

Often times the internal schwag is made by name brand outfits. The stuff they give out can be lowest bidder stuff. Also designs can be somewhat different for the internal vs external versions.

That said, perh for many smaller cos both are one in the same.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#139

Post by 0mni »

lhorie wrote: post #100
decacorn wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this situation involved several people. possibly an entire team. I also believe I was the target of an information-hunting initiative within uber, which was revealed publicly last year. I believe I was only interviewed to gain as much information about the company i was working for at the time. The recruiter was not listed on any uber database, and may not have even been officially a recruiting lead. after several pr…

Wow, that's appalling. I'm really sorry to hear that. I know there's a competitive intelligence group somewhere in Uber, and given the ultimatum email specifically targeted at that group that I mentioned in my other comment, I guess it doesn't come as a complete surprise. I do have a copy of an email about the newest policy governing competitive intelligence gathering from Salle Yoo (head of legal) from late august 2…

Beware of David Rice and Adam Kenvarg of ATG.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#140

Post by yellow_postit »

sjg007 wrote: post #105
losteverything wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are two things uber is scared of? E.g., for a long distance company fear was the cell phone. ($22B revenue to $8B in a five year stretch)

An open source ride summoning tool? Maybe powered by a cryptocurrency?

Let’s call it BitConnect!
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