Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Are we the baddies?

geohot.github.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

481–490 of 554 posts

Re: Are we the baddies?

#481

Post by lazystar »

bigfatkitten wrote: post #478
lazystar wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why would you tip a pizza delivery driver or a bartender, when youre already paying their employer for a pizza/drink? over time, your experiences with any company will vary, due to the cycle of new workers joining the company and experienced workers leaving. tipping after a good experience incentivizes the skilled worker to stay longer in their position, thus increasing the odds that your future interactions will als…

A robust performance evaluation process does this just fine. If they do well they get a bonus, if they do poorly they get fired. There is also no massive and obvious corruption risk in me paying either of those people to do a job as there is with a support engineer. Maybe I should tip customs officers too, for processing my passport quickly and not looking too closely at my luggage? Or perhaps if I take a speeding ti…

> A robust performance evaluation process does this just fine

this assumes that an org is able to perform a robust performance evaluation. i posit that the lack of a quality-based incentive, like tipping, decreases the accuracy of an org's performance review process.

organizations that are unable to retain skilled workers, will also experience a drop in the rate of skilled workers that transition to management positions. over time, management positions are then filled with individuals that do not have experience with the company's product. this lowers the accuracy of performance reviews, which causes a downward spiral: frontline engineers learn which KPI's are important in performance reviews, and focus on achieving those KPI's, rather than focusing on the customer experience. skilled workers are the workers most likely to spot the problem, and either adapt to lower the quality of the experience they provide to the customer, or they begin to seek greener pastures. this is textbook organizational collapse.

Re: Are we the baddies?

#482

Post by tptacek »

jordanb wrote: post #313
jen20 wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are better than they used to be because of the competition. I remember a time not that long ago where getting a minicab was nigh on impossible, and one miraculously did show up, it would be primary so the driver could try to scam you.

Not my experience using taxi call services in Chicago. Whenever I called them (before Uber) the taxi was prompt and courteous. The apps did three things that the call services did not do: 1) subsidize drivers with vc money for many years making drivers plentiful and fares cheap 2) use unlicensed cabs so they could saturate areas like Manhattan that had previously limited the amount of cabs that could operate 3) Depri…

Cabs in Chicago prior to Uber were unbelievably bad unless you were picking them up in the Loop and taking them to a destination within the city limits (reference period: 1995-2010). It could take 45 minutes to get a cab to show up in Lakeview, and it was a crap shoot whether they actually would.

Re: Are we the baddies?

#483

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

alganet wrote: post #457
__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My proposal wasn't that individuals should juggle accounts and cookies in a machine-vs-human game of cat and mouse, but rather that we should rewrite the protocols we use to play that game for us. I don't think there's anything dishonest about that--it's just that making computers lie to each other is the honest work of protecting well-meaning humans from malicious humans. Do you have a different sort of explicitly w…

Just being honest, mostly. I'll say things I know will get me downvoted. I'll criticize things that could benefit me if I think they're manipulative. I won't do alt accounts even if everyone does it. I think most surveillance and advertisement relies on social dynamics. I attempt to play the algorithms but not the people. Sometimes it will get misunderstood, and that's fine.

Ah, well I hope that sharing your honest opinion about it turns out to be an effective strategy. But I'm afraid we'll regret not interfering more directly than that.

Re: Are we the baddies?

#484

Post by jksflkjl3jk3 »

CuriouslyC wrote: post #278
jksflkjl3jk3 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not where I live I never understand why people make comments like this and leave it to the reader to guess where they live. Your profile has your email and linkedin, so it's not like you're trying to stay anonymous. And to your point, local taxis being less expensive is unusual in my travels from 50+ countries. Uber/Grab/Bolt/Gojeck/Maxim are almost always significantly cheaper and more reliable in my experience, e…

Uber is more expensive than a cab in almost all Asian countries, often by a lot. Grab is a bit better, the margin tends to be pretty slim. The main benefit of Uber to me in Asia is that you don't get a taxi driver who tries to skip the meter and extort you, which is a surprisingly common phenomenon.

Uber doesn't even operate in most Asian countries. They made deals with Grab 7-8 years ago to not compete in the same markets.

In which country is Uber more expensive?

Re: Are we the baddies?

#485

Post by echaozh »

bigyabai wrote: post #377
lazystar wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as someone who survived on tips for 2 1/2 years while studying comp sci, you're missing one key detail. tips introduce a situation where harder/faster-paced workers get a higher pay per hour than workers with average productivity. a pizza driver that optimizes their routes and memorizes stop light patterns in their delivery zone will get more deliveries per hour than that of a new hire. so even though they work the s…

1. Tips are not a reliable source of income (I am an American who also survived on tips). 2. Only people working front get tips. If you have a lazy busboy working front for the most talented chef in the world, the chef pockets $0.00/hr in tips. 3. If any computer science job ever contemplated adding tipping to my compensation package, I'd go get my pink slip within the hour.

What do you think of the donations to open source project maintainers or photographers or musicians? What about gifts sent to tiktok hosts?

I'm from a country where there're no tips, and I'm not defending tips at all. But I do think the tiktok gifts are basically tips right? Is it a good idea to live off the gifts like the tips?

Re: Are we the baddies?

#486

Post by Klonoar »

const_cast wrote: post #433
Klonoar wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are seriously overthinking this shit.

They are, but they're correct that attitudes have changed. People largely do not want to be approached in public and actively take steps to make sure it doesn't happen. Simple things like not making eye contact, or wearing headphones everywhere. The reason men don't approach women in public anymore isn't some crazy conspiracy or anything - it's because women have told them to stop. Both implicitly through behavior an…

> The reason men don't approach women in public anymore isn't some crazy conspiracy or anything

Respectfully: no, this is just an excuse.

I don't know where y'all lost the plot but when I was growing up it was widely considered that how you talked to other people was a skill. Skills require practice.

There's a billion people out there. Not everyone you meet is going to be against you talking them up. Do the work, lol

Re: Are we the baddies?

#487

Post by Klonoar »

StefanBatory wrote: post #130
Klonoar wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No? Just... don't be creepy. I've done this a few times over the last few days alone (in Seattle no less, a city infamous for being antisocial - though I'm willing to accept some were tourists for the 4th). IME, people are actually starved for human interaction.

I sometimes browse my city Spotted pages. It's an common thing to see someone complaining about a "creep" (quotes as in, I'm quoting them) because someone tried to hit up on them and so on. In today world, what you're speaking is at best dangerous.

> In today world, what you're speaking is at best dangerous.

It's not dangerous if you do the work to learn how to socially interact.

Re: Are we the baddies?

#488

Post by Klonoar »

bragh wrote: post #160
Klonoar wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are seriously overthinking this shit.

Carefully considering actions that might have life-ruining consequences is not overthinking.

You're not "carefully considering actions", and enough people have already pointed out to you how therapy is likely a good path to go down.

Re: Are we the baddies?

#489

Post by jordanb »

tptacek wrote: post #482
jordanb wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not my experience using taxi call services in Chicago. Whenever I called them (before Uber) the taxi was prompt and courteous. The apps did three things that the call services did not do: 1) subsidize drivers with vc money for many years making drivers plentiful and fares cheap 2) use unlicensed cabs so they could saturate areas like Manhattan that had previously limited the amount of cabs that could operate 3) Depri…

Cabs in Chicago prior to Uber were unbelievably bad unless you were picking them up in the Loop and taking them to a destination within the city limits (reference period: 1995-2010). It could take 45 minutes to get a cab to show up in Lakeview, and it was a crap shoot whether they actually would.

When I lived in Uptown I could typically get one just by standing on Broadway for a little while. When I lived in Logan Square I'd call and they'd be there in 20 minutes. This is well before either Uptown or Logan Square were particularly gentrified.

I can believe if you were going to/from the suburbs it may have been harder. The cabbies could know your destination and could just ignore the dispatcher if they didn't want to run the trip.

Re: Are we the baddies?

#490

Post by tptacek »

jordanb wrote: post #489
tptacek wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cabs in Chicago prior to Uber were unbelievably bad unless you were picking them up in the Loop and taking them to a destination within the city limits (reference period: 1995-2010). It could take 45 minutes to get a cab to show up in Lakeview, and it was a crap shoot whether they actually would.

When I lived in Uptown I could typically get one just by standing on Broadway for a little while. When I lived in Logan Square I'd call and they'd be there in 20 minutes. This is well before either Uptown or Logan Square were particularly gentrified. I can believe if you were going to/from the suburbs it may have been harder. The cabbies could know your destination and could just ignore the dispatcher if they didn't…

I lived in Lakeview (several spots) and just south of Uptown (on Montrose and Broadway, near the Jewel). I had never had a good cab experience. In particular, as I said, I'd often have to call, wait, and then call again when the cab didn't show up. The idea of getting a cab by waiting on Broadway --- I mean, maybe there was some time of day you could do that at? But at 8:30PM? Forget it.
Post reply on HN