
Uber’s Lesson: Silicon Valley’s Startup Machine Needs Fixing - JumpCrisscross
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/technology/uber-start-up-lessons.html
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5thaccount
This is ludicrous!

"Culture that creates wealth needs to change because one CEO resigned".

Because the finance industry is now perfect after the 2009 meltdown, so we can
all look elsewhere, and the massive task of creating billions from nothing
more than an idea and a culture of supplying capital to ideas that are not
currently profitable is incredibly easy to do and replicate, and can be done
by anyone anywhere /s (if that is needed).

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muninn_
He was the right person, with the right attitude, and the right amount of
drive to build Uber. But instead of shifting gears into building a
sustainable, welcoming, ethical business, it went into overdrive. Without a
force of personality it's hard to envision somebody upending the taxi
monopolies, or creating a term for something "let's grab an Uber".

This obviously doesn't exclude all the bad things that have happened, and his
poor judgement, but there's some good along with the bad that we should look
at, I think.

Anyway, I think Uber is largely done for with or without Travis. Maybe time
will prove me wrong, but I fail to see, aside from "hey let's grab an Uber and
the ubiquity of the term", Uber doesn't offer anything that can't be either
easily replicated (Lyft or others), or is a difficult task that they are
simply not the market leader in (autonomous vehicles) nor do they look to be
in the future.

I don't foresee a very good future for the firm, either way. We'll see.

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maxxxxx
I think there is just way too much money around. I don't see value in pushing
a company to the size of Uber without having an idea how to be sustainable. It
would be healthier if startups received less money and would have to be
profitable earlier. This is an extremely distorted market.

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jimmywanger
I hate articles like this that try to boil things down into one tidy
narrative.

Bear in mind that no substantiated evidence was ever uncovered/disclosed by
Susan Fowler's article. If the optics weren't so bad, she would probably be
sued for libel, as one unsubstantiated article caused material harm to an
ongoing business concern.

Regardless, indicting a whole business ecosystem based on one outlier seems
like a reductive simplistic approach to things. The Waymo trade secret lawsuit
is far more substantive than any uncorroborated sexual discrimination
anecdote, but that doesn't get mentioned hardly at all because it doesn't fit
in with the "silicon valley sexist" narrative.

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malcolmgreaves
Incredible. You actually don't belive these women who are out here, in public,
risking their reputations, to deliver the truth. This kind of mentality, of
not believing women when they report sexual harassment and assault, is what's
so fucked up about Tech.

Travis is a shitty human. He has shit morals. He created a culture that
discriminated against​ women. He was _the_ leader who was at the helm as Uber
grew. Ultimately, he had the authority to change course: he chose not to. That
is a massive part of his legacy. It is on par with everything he made at Uber.

Personally, I am glad he got fired and is being made an example. Tech has been
an old boy's club for too long. I am sick and tired of dealing with immature,
emotionally underdeveloped or emotionally absent, people in tech. One can be a
brilliant, analytical, logical, computer nerd AND be emotionally present and
responsible. Tech is becoming too important to be held back by childish
behavior.

FWIW yes, I am in tech myself. I identify as a man, both gender and sex. I
work at a startup in SF.

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jimmywanger
> You actually don't belive these women who are out here, in public, risking
> their reputations, to deliver the truth. This kind of mentality, of not
> believing women when they report sexual harassment and assault, is what's so
> fucked up about Tech.

I don't generally believe accusations of wrongdoing without evidence, just
because they fit the cultural narrative about what's perceived as fucked up
about tech.

Just as I wouldn't believe rape or murder accusations without proof, I am not
willing to believe sexual harassment claims without proof.

Your statement is indicative of everything that's wrong with the current media
circus. You assert that Travis is a shitty human, and you make the assumption
that tech is already fucked up and that it's an old boys club. Baseless
accusations backed up by neither reason nor logic? How are leveling these
accusations without evidence being "emotionally present and responsible"? You
taking such glee in the misfortunes of others tends to support my point, as
this seems like a personal vendetta masquerading as virtual signaling.

