
Things to Learn from Uber’s Implosion - PufflinJ
https://eand.co/five-things-to-learn-from-ubers-implosion-a1a71aac6b0a
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bhouston
This statement may be nice to believe in, but it is wishful thinking:

"You should see bad eudaimonics as a deferred cost: every bit of well-being
that you destroy will one day have to be repaid in some way."

There is no cosmic law of "karma." It is a type of logical fallacy, one that
may make us feel good, but it is not real.

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paulsutter
Despite all the crises, Uber the service seems to be running fine with no
discernible impact. Maybe less is more, as far as headquarters is concerned.
The more execs leave, the fewer management initiatives, and the greater the
chance of profitability.

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mintplant
In essence the author seems to be arguing that Uber is experiencing bad karma.

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dgllghr
As much as I want Uber to implode for all the negative things it has done, I
don't believe that it is, just like I don't believe the big American banks
will despite all the negative things they have done. If anything, I see
companies that create garmonbozia, not eudaimonia, flourishing.

~~~
colechristensen
American banks didn't implode because they simply weren't prosecuted.
Partially because the prosecutors know that they would implode if properly
prosecuted and are morally opposed to the "innocent" employees and
shareholders losing. Nevermind the actually innocent employees and
shareholders at honest banks losing to the dishonest ones.

It's true, you get ahead in American business by cheating and playing the game
right. There are revolving doors between prosecutors and big law firms,
lawyers looking out for themselves don't make waves because it's bad for
careers. If you do cheat and "get caught" it's in your favor to cut a no-fault
deal with the government and take your profits with you. So long as you don't
piss too many people off (just make sure your cheats are too complex to be
easily understood), you get away by paying small fines that mostly just make
lawyers rich with internal audits and such.

It's simply corruption, through and through, but it's not simple corruption.
It's not a bribe or a cheat, but a system that's incentives line up in a way
to maximize profits of cooperative cheats and the lawyers on both sides.

It would take a president and congress who don't spend their time arguing
about vapid bullshit to correct the problem and an electorate that was either
much more educated or respected and trusted those who were (were it they
deserved trust).

If you think the constant cries about abortion and gay rights and such are
about those actual issues, you're a fool. Everything but the details there is
all figured out, but if people keep arguing about it, they won't have any
attention left for the real problems facing the Republic. (and that is
precisely the idea)

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hardwaresofton
Isn't it a little early to be calling it an implosion? Did something happen
that I'm not aware of?

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bhouston
The author's wishful thinking.

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chris_wot
Losing the London license was not wishful thinking. That happened!

~~~
Fricken
Uber's in over 600 cities. It wins some and it loses some. But mostly it wins.

With the SoftBank negotiations Uber's big investors have a chance to sell and
get off the Uber train before it goes off the rails, but they're not selling.
They like it there. It's nice.

[https://www.axios.com/softbanks-big-uber-deal-rests-on-
gover...](https://www.axios.com/softbanks-big-uber-deal-rests-on-
governance-2486730275.html)

~~~
chris_wot
That’s ok, London government has done the right thing and is better off for
it. They win no matter whether Uber succeeds everywhere else!

~~~
hardwaresofton
Note that this has happened before -- Uber has left a city, then come back to
it later, see Austin, TX (they returned in the last 2 months or so)

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rbranson
This is an idea that I _want_ to believe, but the piece lacks substance. The
author seems insistent that this is universal truth, but doesn’t provide any
examples outside of Uber and (barely) Facebook. What other companies are out
there that have suffered consequences by acting antisocial?

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drinchev
Wow. I think that’s more of an anti-American article, rather than something to
learn.

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danso
The thing to learn from Uber is that Uber is losing because it is unethical?
As if companies that are succeeding or are avoiding sanctions _are_ ethical.
Here's the concluding paragraph of this essay if you want to preview its inane
arguments:

> _People like things that are bad for them. But in good ways. Staying out all
> night dancing till the sun comes up is fun. It might be harmful to your
> health, your job, and maybe even your relationship, but for precisely those
> reasons, it’s good for the soul. These things? They’re too often just bad in
> a bad way._

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thisisit
Here I thought it might be a good overview on corporate strategy and how
things went wrong at Uber. But I open this only to read about Uber's bad
"karma" is biting them. The problem is a similar article could be written for
say Snapchat too but then they are doing moderately fine hence nothing to
learn from them, at least for now.

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chris_wot
Oracle is in massive trouble if the central thesis of this article is correct.

And oh brother, I hope they are right.

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fictionfuture
Uber has good karma. The writer of this article clearly had no post traction
experience.

They have an investment thesis that isn't playing out as planned due to
regional push back. Economics.

However, Kalanick should never have written a public apology as that gave
journalists and their SJW counterparts grounds to stand on.

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whipoodle
I thought this was good, unfortunate to see it flagged.

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ubi
click-bait title, no support for claim.

