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Comment by minimaxir | Hacker News Reader

NB: there is a lot of new information in this article. It's a great read.

And greatly depressing. That sounds like a terrible place to work. It's very Machiavellian-esque.

So what I gather is that sexism isn't rampant, it's the work cultural in general that leads to varying degreases of hostile terrible-ism, with sexism just one of the many many symptoms of their horribly constructed work environment.

It's like a tech company run like a Wal-Street high steaks trading firm. Or like Valve ... as a Wal-Street trading firm.

This article also explains Uber's tendency to just ignore laws and see what they can get away with. So much of what they describe is what we see in their business.

Frankly, I'd be worried about their self driving vehicles, and what shortcuts they took that may eventually kill someone. I wonder what other shortcuts they've taken. Maybe in a few years, Uber will go the way of MCI WorldCom when people discover their books are cooked.

>This article also explains Uber's tendency to just ignore laws and see what they can get away with.

In many jurisdictions it was - maybe still is - much worse than just ignoring laws, but actively conspiring to break the law.

For example in Miami-Dade County where being an Uber was illegal in both the criminal and civil context, during that period Uber sent emails to drivers in Miami-Dade with instructions/training on how to actively avoid getting caught, including, but not limited to: removing the Uber phones from windshields and having passengers sit in the front seat.

There is another of Uber's dirty little secrets here in Miami-Dade and that is that Uber is used by drivers to exploit undocumented immigrants, which as far as I can tell Uber is aware of and encourages/facilitates. Moreover, undocumented immigrants can't get a drivers license in Florida; therefore, can't register as Uber drivers. It happens all the time in Miami that the actual driver does not match the Uber driver profile, from my talks with those drivers they are clearly getting exploited.

Yes, but in SF there are Uber drivers who are undocumented but registered using fake SSNs. You can get this taken care of in the mission I'm told.

I see the illegality, on both sides, where is the exploitation?

I suppose in prostitution there is illegality on all sides, but a prostitute could still be exploited by her pimp.

They are most likely in a pimp/prostitute type situation where they have to collect their money from the driver they are impersonating and are only getting a % of their earnings. Being an Uber driver is already a lower paying job, so only getting a % of that in Miami, a very high cost city is certaintly exploitation.

Then again they are illegal immigrants so it might also be the best opportunity they could find. I sure as shit would rather drive people around in my car then pick produce in the strawberry fields we have down here.

You seem to be arguing that it's both exploitative and not exploitative at the same time?

They're getting a job, but it's cheap labor and aren't being paid a fair wage.

TIL NB = "nota bene".

> N.B. is an abbreviation for the Latin nota bene, which means "note well." It is normally used at the beginning of a sentence in order to inform the reader that the following words are of great importance.

I had to stop using NB professionally because people kept asking what it meant. :(

I have never seen it. Is it often used in legal text?

Everyone in the UK would know what it means. I doubt it is particularly common in legal documents. Probably something to do with having a decent proportion (>0.001%) of the population educated in the classics...

no, not really. The most common latinism is "ibid" in its various forms, which is used to avoid repeating a full citation.

NB is used more like "i.e." or "e.g." in the US, from my experience.

It's more like a class signifier. People who have certain educational backgrounds, or read a lot of certain types of writing, are more likely to use it.

Like the semi-colon; useful for showing you went to college.

It seems to save a lot of hassle to just say "Note:" instead, rather than an obscure acronym that already has a non-obscure, short equivalent.

Reminds me of a forum I was on, where people would edit posts and preface the edit with "ETA:" (edited to add). But virtually every time someone had to ask what it meant, and eventually people started using "Edit:".

Perhaps NB is more of a European thing? I see it here often, but never did once in Australia. That said, I don't consider NB close to being 'obscure'.

Am Australian, I don't see it here much but I think most white-collar workers would definitely have seen it.

Perhaps you are right - my 'problem' is that my parents are of an age were they studied Latin at High School, and as a result some of their education rubbed off on me; I no longer remember where I learned 'NB' (and other Latin miscellanea). Try living with parents who liked making witty and snarky comments in Latin about one and one's brother when one was trying to survive life as a nerdy teenager! :)

Evidently Mr. Ringo's an educated man.

> NB: there is a lot of new information in this article. It's a great read.

I hope those who were poo-poo'ing NYT for its earlier article being a softball will reconsider that criticism.

Journalism takes more time than writing a comment on HN.

Mike Isaac produces top notch reporting. Worth supporting NYT for articles like this and many others.

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