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Comment by TigeriusKirk | Hacker News Reader

It's not a bio piece.

It's a post specifically focused on why someone thinks a certain team succeeded.

Given that, of course it's about positive traits.

Why? I think AirBnb, Uber, and DoorDash have all succeeded primarily due to flaunting of social norms and fair employment regulations, treating them as externalities to be exploited, rather than social fabric that we can rely on. Why would a piece about why they succeeded necessarily forgo these critical parts to their immorally obtained success?

Illegally, "allegally", of dubious concordance with the spirit of the law, maybe. But immorally? That is very much a matter of opinion don't you think?

Damn right it's a matter of opinion. My opinion is that the deliberate abuse and exploitation of social niceties is immoral. What I don't see is how it being an opinion does anything to invalidate it, nor how pointing it out is an opinion is expected to convince me against holding it.

Edit: Perhaps I am a bit harsh here. I am frustrated overall at the general idea that nothing can ever be condemned, and morals may not be discussed, merely because they include a subjective value judgment. Those value judgments occur at all times, and are what give importance to the facts.

I totally agree that it's perfectly fine to discuss morals, even condemn them, it's a valid conversation and it should be explored.

Your point about the morality of their actions is totally valid in itself. A valid and well supported opinion.

However what I refer to is that you question how a piece like this article can go ahead and not point out the immortality of their ways. And I really think that from their business-centered, libertarian point of view, there just isn't any immortality here. In their opinion, they did things right. Therefore they could not point it out.

Fair enough, I need to be more specific about what I believe is the point of the piece.

It's intended to give would-be entrepreneurs insight into traits of previously successful entrepreneurs. In particular traits the writer believes should be emulated.

Those will naturally be positive traits, because the entire point of the piece is to give readers something to aim for.

I don't think Airbnb is in the same boat as the latter two in regards to fair employment regulations.

> Flaunting social norms

In the case of Airbnb, what was the social norm? Staying in a hotel? Wouldn't all disruption be flaunting social norms??

I think applying your own moral standards to a company in this way can get precarious. Beside the outlier cases of trashed rentals or someone left in the cold (which is harmful, but again, a very small percentage of their volume), the majority or Airbnb hosts and guests seem to find value in their service and choose to use it. How immoral is that, in reality?

> In the case of Airbnb, what was the social norm? Staying in a hotel?

The social norm is the expectation that your neighbors won’t be running a hotel next door.

seems to be pretty sleazy:

https://www.quora.com/Did-Airbnb-get-sued-for-running-a-robo...

"What Airbnb did in 2010 and 2011 was to use a bot to spambot to email who had posted short term vacation rental ads on Craigslist. The emails claimed to be from women who liked their listings, suggesting that they try Airbnb. "

Interesting. Craigslist uses an anonymous email routing mechanism, in order to allow people to contact the ad poster. And vice versa.

Does Craigslist actively monitor the messages being passed through?

Edit: Why did I get downvoted? It was a legitimate question. It may have deviated from the article subject, but that’s how conversations flow, and how you learn of new things.

The hosts and guests find value. The neighbors of the hosts often have a miserable time, which is why usually zoning laws stop people running hotels wherever they like.

> In the case of Airbnb, what was the social norm?

Paying your taxes. AirBnB has managed to avoid VAT by pushing that responsibility onto hosts. UK is looking to changing this arrangement.

Have you lived in a city or a building infested with Airbnbs? It's a hell for a person to live in a building infested with Airbnbs. Also, not to mention that Airbnb was one of the major factors in driving rental and apartment prices up for long term renters/buyers. I would say Airbnb did more harm to actual people living in the city than Uber ever did. Airbnb willingly allowed people to own multiple properties and just rent them out on short term. There is a reason a lot of major cities in the world had to pass laws that would restrict people from listing their secondary properties on Airbnb and even then, I don't think Airbnb enforces those laws at all. But hey, they are a YC company and care about how people travel, so people eat that bullshit up. At least hedge funds don't pretend to be noble and tell us upfront that all they care about is making money.

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