[logicallee]

And people joke when startups are considered "disruptive." This is disruption in action. Uber is changing the face of society. (When it comes to cabs.)

And society is resisting. Any other company, in any other market, would just give up. But a San Francisco tech company is different: it can KNOW that progress is right, and push, push, push it through throughout society.

This is a story that repeats again and again. Idealistic disruptive startups actually change the face of society, while everyone else poo-poos and wrings their hands, until they don't.

[bayesianhorse]

And disrupting moral standards in business, according to some. (I'm not judging Uber or those who say that, including one of their investors)

[logicallee]

(Actually that is a separate matter and I agree with you completely. They need to return to their roots and not do any of that spoiled only-child stuff (no offense to people who are an only child, I just can't think of a better example, and of course if someone is an only child they can still learn to cooperate-etc.)

If you want, Uber, you can be a child who doesn't share their toys: just create something new again! You can't retain a monopoly otherwise. Wouldn't you rather keep growing, like Google after search, than retain a hundred percent of some single tiny specific market, like Windows as a monopoly? Just take a look at the two respective stock charts (goog and msft, max timeframe).

I actually take this subject totally seriously. However it's orthogonal to what we were discussing. For anyone who doesn't know what we're talking about, it doesn't matter here.)