[malvosenior]

> However, the outside world looks at us with disdain

The only people that view the tech industry with disdain are journalists and old media.

Regular people happily use their iPhones, Facebook, Uber, AirBnB...

Just because a lot of ink is spilled trying to keep outdated media models alive, it doesn't mean the general population feels this way. The success of all of these services is proof enough that people are not bothered.

[borkt]

Yeah, they are too busy being addicted to candy crush without realizing that was precisely the intention. My wife, who is not an engineer (she works in applied science) is disgusted with how the technologies have been used to take advantage of the general public. She hates how airbnb has caused a town we wanted to live in to now lie around 24% of homes unoccupied outside of summer while housing prices continue to rise because Airbnb has made it a better value to keep houses away from long term rentals. You are being incredibly naive to even have a catogory called regular people. I am an engineer who builds infrastructure and manages projects each day. I can code but I am not a "software engineer". I am baffled how people at google, facebook, and the like who are funded by ad revene (from ads no one really clicks on or views) can sleep at night knowing how their products have caused so much harm.

[paulddraper]

> take advantage

What makes it "take advantage" and not "serve"?

People want entertainment on their phone. So entertainment is provided.

People value seasonal rentals more than permanent housing. So seasonal rentals are provided.

What party is being "taken advantage" of? What coercive or dishonest elements at play?

[smacktoward]

"People want heroin. So heroin is provided."

[adventured]

There's absolutely nothing morally wrong with using heroin.

People want cheeseburgers, they're provided. People want marijuana, it's provied. People want alcohol, it's provided. People want sugar, it's provided. People want to gamble, it's provided. People want pornography, it's provided. People want violent movies and video games, it's provided.

You can outlaw so called sins, negatives, or you can properly regulate them and treat people that become addicts. Heroin is obviously an extreme example of that context. There is only one effective solution to heroin addiction: treat addiction, do not outlaw heroin use. It should be safely, legally provided to people that need it.

[paulddraper]

Yes, that is libertarian.

[DoctorOetker]

People want egalitarianism, it's not provided,

People want georgism, it's not provided.

People want privacy, it's not provided.

People want to the signing keys for the whole chain of bootloaders, without false bottoms, it's not provided.

People want universal basic income (or some variation thereof), it's not provided.

And so on...

[dbt00]

Let them eat skinner boxes.

[rchaud]

> Regular people happily use their iPhones, Facebook, Uber, AirBnB...

So when Uber circumvented the law to allow anybody to become a taxi driver, thereby hurting drivers who played by the rules, and the media reports on that, they can be safely ignored because they didn't interview a happy user of the app?

Regular people happily use non-biodegradable plastic bags. Maybe the old media should hold off on reporting on its consequences until the oceans have been completely liberated of marine life.

[mushbino]

Taxi drivers played by the rules written by and for existing taxi drivers. It was a government protected racket badly in need of some free market forces and Uber/Lyft have provided just that.

[Endama]

When it comes to the services/products, I agree with you, the general population certainly thinks they are great. However, how often have you heard of tech workers as being a positive thing for a city? How many times in TV shows / movies are tech workers seen as a boon? (e.g. Silicon Valley, Black Mirror, Searching) I'm not saying that this _necessarily_ means that literally everyone feels disdain towards the tech industry across all slices of society, I am arguing that the banner of disruption of being a good thing by definition, is misguided.