
Uber CTO resigns amidst 5400 employee layoff - dzonga
https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/28/thuan-pham-who-fled-vietnam-as-a-child-and-became-ubers-cto-in-2013-is-leaving-the-company/
======
dang
This article lifts from [https://www.theinformation.com/articles/uber-
discusses-plan-...](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/uber-discusses-
plan-to-lay-off-about-20-of-
employees?&pu=hackernews0hocd3&utm_source=hackernews&utm_medium=unlock), which
is discussed at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23011146](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23011146).

That thread was buried because of the hard paywall (see
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html)),
but The Information sometimes unlocks their articles for HN readers, and they
agreed to do so with this one. Thanks!

We'll merge the relevant comments thither. It's a bit tricky, as we don't want
the supercapitary carp to end up in the wrong thread.

~~~
BerislavLopac
I have no idea what "supercapitary carp" is, but I just love the sound of
it... :D

~~~
dang
I couldn't think of an adjective for the carp that is over our heads
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23014677](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23014677)),
so I made one.

------
teruakohatu
> and offering only a carp over their heads

Is this an American term? Or is it a typo for 'tarp'.

~~~
labster
Not an American term. Just a typo that, like everything about Uber, is a
little too fishy.

~~~
PakG1
You made me click. They fixed it to tarp. And here I was about to go on a wild
goose chase to see if there might have been a reasonable explanation for why a
carp was used. :)

~~~
ryandrake
Sounds like they're floundering around looking for the right word.

~~~
labster
If this is your sense of humor, can I recommend an inkredible anime called
Squid Girl _ika_?

------
amatecha
Is the resignation actually related to layoffs or the title just clickbait?
Because "amidst" means nothing concrete.

It would seem the actual article title is: "Thuan Pham, who fled Vietnam as a
child and became Uber’s CTO in 2013, is leaving the company". Maybe it changed
after posting, maybe not. But the clickbait we have now is a bit disingenuous.
The article TechCrunch cites as its source has far less ambiguous wording:

"Layoffs of that magnitude, which haven’t been finalized but could be
announced in stages in the coming weeks, could result in more than 5,400 of
Uber’s 27,000 employees losing their jobs. Separately, Uber’s chief technology
officer Thuan Pham—who joined Uber in 2013 and is the longest-serving senior
executive at the company—has resigned from the company, said a person with
knowledge of the situation."

~~~
oh_sigh
This is a pernicious problem with journalism in general(or really, any writing
that wants to convince you of some point of view).

Whenever I see the weasley language of "X happens amidst Y" or "As Y grows, X
happens", I just assume that X has nothing to do with Y unless I am given
evidence otherwise.

~~~
PakG1
I think I should probably do that, but it feels so unnatural for me to be
suspicious or cynical of so much at face value and assume that people are
always trying to manipulate my thinking at some level. I may end up being more
intelligent by doing this and have better outcomes in everything I do, but I'm
not confident that I'd feel happier in the process.

~~~
oh_sigh
If you were looking to maximize happiness, not reading anything beyond local
news once every day or two and national/international news every 5-7 days
would probably go a long way.

------
busymom0
The title says "5400 employee layoff" but the article doesn't seem to mention
that. It only mentions that they expect a big layoff. Am I missing some other
news or is this title wrong?

> Uber’s 27,000 employees

I am curious why Uber has 27,000 employees and whether tis is reasonable? Does
this number include their other app UberEats too? And do they consider their
branches for driver registration verification etc in each city to be
employees? I feel like a lot of this can be trimmed down.

~~~
wpietri
Given Uber's high level of internal competitiveness, their culture issues, and
their grow-at-all-costs ethos, I would be totally unsurprised that they have a
lot more people than you'd see at a hypothetical saner company delivering the
same value.

Even if that's true, it doesn't mean that a large cut like this will help
anything. It's totally plausible that this will the make culture worse, get
staff into a scarcity mindset, and reduce the levels of collaboration and
value focus.

Losing weight can be good, but just cutting off a limb is not the best way to
go about it.

~~~
JMTQp8lwXL
A criticism of the "grow at all costs" mindset: they aren't even executing on
that efficiently. Per their GitHub account, they have 162 open source
libraries. That's 162 open source solutions they could have found elsewhere
and moved on to more pressing business needs.

~~~
bdcravens
How many of those libraries are even used by Uber? While I think open source
is intrinsically valuable, it feels like a lot of work out there is innovation
theater by those with extra VC cash.

~~~
sjtindell
There’s very little downside. Spend some money from wealthy people and
institutions, get some engineers paid, get some code written. The only losers
are the investors who, per their job description, take the risk. Perhaps
simplified but I like companies spending money on this stuff.

~~~
bdcravens
Risk is part of investment of course, but isn't the assumption the money will
be spent in ways that focuses on return? (I know the answer being a developer,
but taking the broader perspective)

------
SilasX
Oh wow, and we just had this story, I'm not sure if it's similar enough to
merge:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23011146](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23011146)

------
jchook
I think your custom link title gives far more relevant context than the TC
title, and in far fewer words.

My last submission got on the front page then they edited the title back to
the (IMO opaque) original title, citing the guidelines[1]:

> If the title begins with a number or number + gratuitous adjective, we'd
> appreciate it if you'd crop it. E.g. translate "10 Ways To Do X" to "How To
> Do X," and "14 Amazing Ys" to "Ys." Exception: when the number is
> meaningful, e.g. "The 5 Platonic Solids."

> Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or
> linkbait; don't editorialize.

1\.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

