
Why I would never want to compete with Travis Kalanick - julianozen
https://medium.com/@sacca/why-i-would-never-want-to-compete-with-travis-kalanick-64e5f0218362
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tptacek
_“I have a confession to make, Mr. Sacca. I’ve played a fair amount of Wii
Tennis before.” While talking, he used his controller to navigate through the
settings pages on the Wii to a list of high scores. “In fact,” he continued,
“on the Wii Tennis global leaderboard, I am currently tied for 2nd in the
world.”_

[...]

 _So, if Travis decides he wants to provide a cleaner, safer, easier
experience than the current taxi system, he will make that work. If he sets
his sights on reforming pervasive, anti-consumer regulatory corruption, watch
those laws soon fall while exposing the shady backroom deals that created
them. If he wants to eviscerate the racism that keeps people of color from
having consistent access to rides in taxis, that will be the result. If he
wants to take drunk drivers off the street, you will see the fatality rates
fall wherever he operates his business._

To understand how someone can reasonably jump from the Wii Tennis leaderboard
to an unequivocal valorization of Uber and the process of building Uber, it
helps to know that Chris Sacca is one of Uber's earliest investors.

The article was more interesting before the "anti-corruption" "shady backroom
deals" stuff. Horserace coverage of markets is interesting and Sacca has an
unique vantage point. I don't know why he bothered trying to sneak the moral
justification in.

~~~
paul
Guessing which founders are going to start the next multi-billion dollar
business is surprisingly hard. To me, the fact that Sacca is an early investor
in Uber gives the post more credibility, not less.

~~~
tptacek
Sorry, I was totally unclear. His assessment of Kalanick's competitive prowess
is very credible. His assessment of the public policy impact of Uber is less
so. (I edited the comment shortly after writing it, trying to capture that).

------
akerl_
"He doesn’t sleep. He doesn’t lose focus. He will even forget to eat. He
executes again and again, inspiring those around him to have the same passion
for the end game as he does."

I really wish we'd stop using sleep-deprivation and similar unhealthy patterns
as a gauge for level-of-dedication. I'd hazard a guess that what makes Travis
Kalanick so effective at what he does his willingness to do hard work,
effectively choose between various risks and business strategies, and network
well with other motivated people. The part where he doesn't eat probably isn't
what's helping him.

~~~
api
Agreed. Lots of aspiring entrepreneurs copy that kind of stuff, doing 80 hour
work weeks on Red Bull, modafinil, and ramen because correlation equals
causation.

Many great musicians had problems with heroin so shooting smack will make you
a great musician, right?

------
hawkice
Chris Sacca seems like a good person and straight-shooter, but I am having a
hard time reading any more reasoning out of this than "I think he's hard
working and he's really good at Wii Tennis". It could have been any game, and
it's not like he's secretly best-in-the-world at all games. He got lucky (when
it comes to the game chosen by his opponent) in a casual encounter playing
video games at a cabin. Surely we are approaching the horizon where completely
random statistical noise is being swapped out for insight?

------
signalnine
I hear that when Travis Kalanick was born a bright star lit up the sky, the
seasons spontaneously changed from winter to spring, and rainbows appeared.

------
skrebbel
I'm not sure why this is on HN. Might as well change the title to "Owner Of
Taxi Company Stock Thinks Taxi Company CEO Is The Shit". This is almost as
earth shattering as a blog post in which the Winklevosses recommend that we
all buy Bitcoin.

------
chralieboy
The author seems to have written this as flattering to Travis, but he comes
off as an arrogant jackass.

At the end of the day, he doesn't care about _people_. He decides he wants to
own something and ruthlessly pursues it. There is merit to success in a narrow
field of life (e.g. business), but on the whole I wouldn't put him up as a
model citizen.

Would I want a world full of people like that? Not particularly. Reminds me of
Thomas Hobbes' "endless seeking of power after power, that ceaseth only in
death." A recipe for success, in a very narrow sense, but not happiness.

~~~
puranjay
I said this in an earlier thread as well.

TK comes across as a businessman. The kind of living embodiment of those
motivational mantras 'business and marketing' accounts have on Instagram
(except his is the 'work hard, work harder' dictum, not the 'work hard, party
hard')

In contrast, the people who run Google - Page, Brin and (earlier) Schmidt -
come across as nerds who just happened to build an absolutely amazing product.
Their commitment is to their tech first, not their business. Yes, they will
mow down rivals if need be, but they won't do it as unapologetically and
single-mindedly as TK

TK reminds me a bit of Bill Gates in the late 80s and 90s - smart as hell and
ruthlessly driven.

I wouldn't want to compete against 90s-era Gates. Or 90s era Larry Ellison. He
would probably outwork, outnetwork and outsell me. I _might_ have a chance of
outsmarting him, but that isn't nearly enough.

(no, that's hyperbole. I have no chance in hell of outsmarting Gates or
Ellison or TK)

------
psbp
This might be the worst post I've ever seen on the frontpage of HN.

------
birken
My guess is Travis does need sleep (like all humans), he does lose focus from
time to time (like all humans), and does need to eat (like all humans).

I'm glad Uber exists, and good for Chris Sacca for investing in Uber, but
Travis is not a superhuman person and this is no content post.

------
romankolpak
Author of the post makes Travis Kalanick look like a hero of Ayn Rand novel.
Don't know how to feel about this

------
serve_yay
Indeed, I would probably choose a game he does not play. Competing against
people like that is a tiresome grind.

------
jedanbik
Note that the author has invested in Uber.

------
untog
"Person who has invested large sums of money in Uber and has a lot to gain
from it being successful says that, despite what many, many other people say,
the Uber CEO is in fact a fantastic person."

Yawn.

