Fuck this guy. These people are the cancer of Silicon Valley that generally has integrity and decency in pursuing startup endeavors; with some rotten apples here and there like this guy and Elizabeth Holmes.
I have never heard anyone associate Silicon Valley with integrity and decency (pursuing startup endeavors).
Not saying they aren't, I just never really heard it explicitly said so. Is this a common self perception within that region? What makes it so? Beyond a baseline of that most people consider themselves having integrity and decency.
Investors routinely entrust entrepreneurs with millions of dollars, after only some relatively-light due diligence. You'll meet for coffee first, then dinner, if you hit it off then more conversations, and eventually a term sheet. The investor doesn't ask for source code or technical documents, or subject the entrepreneurs to a rigorous examination to make sure it's not a scam. It's all based largely on trust.
Oof, bad example there. Airbnb is cancer. It’s enabling people to run illegal hotels in residential neighborhoods, allowing people to cash in when their neighbors pay the price and driving up rents.
And no I don’t care if you’ve had use out of it or you feel like “it’s my property, I can do what I want with it”, which is an entirely self-serving rationalization that doesn’t stand up any sort of scrutiny.
FWIW, you are agreeing with the comment you replied to - they are saying AirBnB, et al., are definitely not companies helmed by do-gooders and morally sound people.
Let's face it. It was all fun and games until silicon valley was the underdog. Now this place makes and inevitably breaks the world. As is natural, places of power will attract people of malice. It will bring out selfishness and pride from a fraction of any random group of people that are given this opportunity.
The undoing of any rebellion is the flawed belief that the rebels will continue to be the good guys because (a) they're young, (b) they are the oppressed or (c) because they stick to logical rational thought. This all works as long as they're the rebels. Once they're the power-weilders, the same people become the problem they tried to solve. Because lust for power, money and fame is inherent in most of us. What's happening in SV now is demonstration number N of this.
You have basically applied trotsky's theory of eternal revolution to the tech world. Whoever is in power must always be challenged, even if they were once the ones denouncing those in power.
I feel like this is not the right comparison. Unlike Holmes, Levandowski at least knows his shit. He might not be worth the millions he's paid, but there's no doubt he's not an empty suit.
No, she wasn’t. She was a fraud from top to bottom — but she still convinced investors, powerful people, and talented engineers to invest in her, defend her, and join her company. She’s morally bankrupt but her lack of engineering acumen isn’t related to that.
Levandowski is morally bankrupt too — and sloppy when it came to covering his tracks — the fact that he’s a brilliant engineer doesn’t make his actions more palpable.
Both are bad people and I’m not comfortable giving a guy a pass just because he was smart. Ultimately, he was just as greedy as Holmes. He wasn’t satisfied with the nine figure payouts both from Google and Uber (and his Uber money could have exceeded ten figures depending on stock options) and had to go for even more.
Fuck that guy. Fuck Elizabeth Holmes too, but Fuck Levandowski.
If you honestly think that being smart on some dimension that you personally think is particularly virtuous is some sort of get out of jail free card, you might want to re-think your ethics.
Let's see. Travis Kalanick. Anthony Levandowski. One of these is better than the other? No, I don't think so. And as shitty a human being as both are neither of them are on the level of Holmes.
Not saying they aren't, I just never really heard it explicitly said so. Is this a common self perception within that region? What makes it so? Beyond a baseline of that most people consider themselves having integrity and decency.