[beatpanda]

The fact that the company is called Uber, which is an obvious reference to Nietzsche's idea of the Ubermensch. The fact that Kalanick has said, publicly, that the point of starting the company was to enable his already-rich friends to "be baller" in San Francisco. The fact that he had Uber build a thing called "God Mode" into their software so that he could watch famous people come and go on the service and occasionally put that enormous power on display to other powerful people.

He's a raging, power-hungry narcissistic sociopath, in public, all the time. This isn't guess work. The parent of my original post is suggesting that Uber exists for reasons other than the ones Kalanick has given in public, and that's just silly.

[dsacco]

I can appreciate a point about someone violating privacy by building that particular feature, but your comment is so caustic and accusatory it's just noise, not a valid addition to a legitimate debate.

You cannot call someone a "raging, power-hungry narcissistic sociopath" or accuse him of having a "god complex" for 1. wanting to build a successful company catering to rich people or 2. naming a company after a Nietzschian ideal. Does NASA have a god complex because they used the name Apollo?

Your points about Travis do not seem to be informed by reason or experience with the man. In fact, it just seems as though you're emotionally invested to the point of complete and utter bias.

[beatpanda]

You can certainly take away a different interpretation of the evidence than I do, but to me the gestalt of the man's public persona and actions add up to a picture of a person entirely driven by a desire for power, not some narrow notion of "improving transportation".

That you don't see the same thing demonstrates your own bias to give certain people and behaviors more room for doubt. Which is fine, as long as you recognize it's still a bias. We are the same kind of meat-machine, with the same bugs. Don't try to act like you're above it.

[dylanjermiah]

I have yet to see any 'evidence', or personal insight. Yet you seem to think you understand a man, whom you've never met nor interacted with, and his deep personal motivations. Based upon his 'public persona'. You don't see anything odd about that?

[beatpanda]

No, I don't. His public persona is what he is choosing to project to the world. It amounts to the things he wants us to know about him. And more importantly, one is what one does, not what one intends.

[dylanjermiah]

"One is what one does, not intends"

I couldn't agree more. Travis (and the team) has created $51bn of market value, provided cheaper and more efficient transportation to tens of millions of people in hundreds of cities all around the world. He's fought, and defeated, corruption of city officials in many locations all around the world. Uber has and will have a massive positive impact on tens/hundreds/thousands of millions of people in the world (with the self driving vehicle). How he's portrayed in the media is largely irrelevant, to me at least.