I'm a developer for a major food delivery app • Hacker News Board

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#161

Post by MrDresden » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 8:44 AM UTC

nxtfari wrote: post #135

Believability aside (I do think it’s believable personally) this is pretty much how “evil” (from outsider perspective) is done at every company, including mine. Inside it’s all sprint meetings, KPIs and terminology that are either intentionally or unintentionally designed to keep engineers far from thinking about impact on real people. It’s easy to convince a 25 year old whiz kid to optimize human assets, it’s just l…

> Believability aside (I do think it’s believable personally) this is pretty much how “evil” (from outsider perspective) is done at every company

I used to be in a mobile application team for a bank, where I had genuine meetings with the loans department where it was discussed if we truly wanted to make it easy and obvious to users how they could pay their loans on time (their logic was that those who default and have to pay extra fees were the banks "best" customers).

We obviously pushed back hard on that. But I can imagine these scenarios playing out in other places and with other results.

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#162

Post by rich_sasha » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 8:44 AM UTC

whatever1 wrote: post #146

rich_sasha wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this compare to typical taxi corporations? In Europe at least, taxis are often organised into companies, with centralised bookings, and taxi drivers paying a cut to the corporation. Here the cut is, based on your numbers, 65%, which does seem very high, but then what do I know.

I believe taxi companies own the license (which is super expensive) as well as the car. They also pay maintenance and gas costs. So 35% cut to just drive equipment is not that bad. The issue with uber/lyft is that you also need to bring your vehicle, pay maintenance, gas, insurance and depreciation. I think that poor guy made less than 15% (assuming an 80 cent per mile cost for the vehicle).

I believe in Europe taxi drivers typically cover these costs too. Not sure about licensing costs. In that regard, they are more like cooperatives rather than "companies with employees". But I don't know for sure - and probably varies by locale.

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#163

Post by nxtfari » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 8:47 AM UTC

huhkerrf wrote: post #147

nxtfari wrote: post #135

Believability aside (I do think it’s believable personally) this is pretty much how “evil” (from outsider perspective) is done at every company, including mine. Inside it’s all sprint meetings, KPIs and terminology that are either intentionally or unintentionally designed to keep engineers far from thinking about impact on real people. It’s easy to convince a 25 year old whiz kid to optimize human assets, it’s just l…

> designed to keep engineers far from thinking about impact on real people Why do we think engineers are some special class of people who can't do bad things?

I hear what you’re saying, there are definitely just amoral engineers who truly don’t care. I think the plurality though (and this goes for all disciplines, not just engineering) will start to feel queasy if the impact is too clear and visible. Those people need to stay with the program, as there aren’t enough purely amoral engineers/marketers/PMs/etc to keep the ship afloat alone.

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#164

Post by concinds » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 8:47 AM UTC

hussachai wrote: post #32

> I’m posting this from a library Wi-Fi on a burner laptop because I am technically under a massive NDA. I don’t care anymore. I put in my two weeks yesterday and honestly, I hope they sue me. Why bother using library Wi-Fi on a burner laptop if he doesn't care anymore? Why give out the biggest clue, which is the time of his resignation letter? If the story is real, this company is a straight-up scammer waiting for t…

The biggest red flag is: "I don't care anymore, I hope they sue me", and saying they're about to contact reporters.

It's designed to boost credibility (this is gonna be proven legit, any day now! skeptics will look dumb!), but then why hasn't he gone to them already? Texting a Signal number takes a second. Why would he take additional legal and financial risk for fake internet points on a minor subreddit known for its fanfic?

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#165

Post by rich_sasha » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 8:48 AM UTC

manuelmoreale wrote: post #138

rich_sasha wrote: post #116

If true (I'm not sure), this is kind of economics in action. There's a monopolistic market maker, screwing every last cent out of providers, with enormous power imbalances. The market maker is semi monopolistic, the labour is low-skilled, with little bargaining power and few better options. The "winners" are shareholders of the company and to some extent the end customers (who, other things being equal, would have to…

> In other words, I see this not a special greed of this particular company, but a logical conclusion of the economic system it operates in. (I'm not saying it is good either. Only that raging against the symptom is a bit misplaced, and instead you should focus attention at the causes). I think this is conceptually sound take but at the same time it's way too kind towards the people who are on the field making these…

> it's way too kind towards the people who are on the field making these decisions.

So I guess, nicer taxi corporations existed, and got turfed out by Uber and Lyft who managed to reduce prices or increase convenience, and are reaping the fruit of their investment. Capitalism in motion.

I guess my fundamental point is, you can't fix this by putting pressure on companies to be nicer, because the ones being less nice will ultimately win due to better economics. If you want to fix it, change the law. Anything else is kind of shouting at clouds.

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#166

Post by mns » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 8:48 AM UTC

nxtfari wrote: post #135

Believability aside (I do think it’s believable personally) this is pretty much how “evil” (from outsider perspective) is done at every company, including mine. Inside it’s all sprint meetings, KPIs and terminology that are either intentionally or unintentionally designed to keep engineers far from thinking about impact on real people. It’s easy to convince a 25 year old whiz kid to optimize human assets, it’s just l…

Engineers are completely blindsided by technology. I work with some brilliant people, technically speaking, but in some cases they seem to have 0 awareness towards the things they are building and how that affects the people using the things that we built. I had a couple of months ago an engineer that's working on various AI things in our company telling me how we can use and build an AI tool to rate the performance of people in the company and people that use our platform (let's say similar to all these mini-job platforms) just to know who to fire if they are not efficient. At no point in time was he thinking of the people, all he could think of was the algorithm and AI and how amazing it could be to do this.

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#167

Post by slekker » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 8:48 AM UTC

zmgsabst wrote: post #155

anonzzzies wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know plenty of Uber (and normal taxis) drivers around the airport here who pick up a someone, then ask if they mind taking someone else. Because it is usually vans and business customers, they don't care and actually kind of like talking with other business guys who probably went or are going to the same seminar/conference etc. The driver will then load up whatever fits who are waiting for taxis or drivers and only…

In Vietnam, if you see a parked driver waiting for a call, you can show him your Grab (ie, Asian copy of Uber) price to go somewhere, then get the same ride for 80%. Why would they mind more cash in their pocket?

A similar thing happened to me in South America while on vacation, I was looking to book an Uber but the taxi driver gave me a small discount to do it "on the side" and explained that he wouldn't see most of the money from Uber. As a passenger, the advantage of Uber is that if something happens, I have someone accountable: drive + car plate. But in reality I don't know if that works

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#168

Post by anal_reactor » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 8:48 AM UTC

whatever1 wrote: post #88

Lyft is also a scam for the drivers. In a ride from the airport to home during rush hour (1h and 15 minutes drive) I got charged ~$140. The company was paying, so whatever. During the ride I was chatting with the driver, and I was curious how much he was making from the ride. At the end of the ride he showed me. $48 (before my tip). WTF. From that he had to pay gas, maintenance and taxes. How is this legal? What is t…

I remember I ordered a taxi in Mexico and the driver had to pay freeway toll that was roughly equal to the ride price. I gave him cash for the toll.

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#169

Post by anal_reactor » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 8:52 AM UTC

manuelmoreale wrote: post #138

rich_sasha wrote: post #116

If true (I'm not sure), this is kind of economics in action. There's a monopolistic market maker, screwing every last cent out of providers, with enormous power imbalances. The market maker is semi monopolistic, the labour is low-skilled, with little bargaining power and few better options. The "winners" are shareholders of the company and to some extent the end customers (who, other things being equal, would have to…

> In other words, I see this not a special greed of this particular company, but a logical conclusion of the economic system it operates in. (I'm not saying it is good either. Only that raging against the symptom is a bit misplaced, and instead you should focus attention at the causes). I think this is conceptually sound take but at the same time it's way too kind towards the people who are on the field making these…

> But deciding to go along and play the same awful game and drag everybody else down with it is a personal choice.

True but misleading. If the system promotes being an asshole, then you'll have assholes at the top, no matter how much effort you put into moralizing everyone.

Re: I'm a developer for a major food delivery app

#170

Post by JumpCrisscross » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 8:53 AM UTC

nxtfari wrote: post #135

Believability aside (I do think it’s believable personally) this is pretty much how “evil” (from outsider perspective) is done at every company, including mine. Inside it’s all sprint meetings, KPIs and terminology that are either intentionally or unintentionally designed to keep engineers far from thinking about impact on real people. It’s easy to convince a 25 year old whiz kid to optimize human assets, it’s just l…

> I do think it’s believable

My believability is stretched by them disclosing they "put in my two weeks yesterday." That's highly identifiable and incongruent with "posting...from a library Wi-Fi on a burner laptop."