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Comment by carterschonwald | Hacker News Reader

If this story doesn't nearly or outright bring a tear to your eye, please pause for a moment and ask yourself why.

[edit: it doesn't matter whether it's real vs fiction, it's a question of how you would react if you did something in the normal course of what you do, and then come to realize at it had a profoundly positive impact on someone else. Is not the romanticized part of the modern conception of a startup a blend of changing people's lives positively at skill via products that make the world better plus a dash of hopefully positioning yourself to there after only work on projects that capture your eye?

I will not dispute that the story here is cute and possibly fiction. But even if your day to do focus is building better tech in some domain, it's about building better tools for other people. ]

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Because it isn't true. Because it's a hackneyed creation of a shallow imagination peopled with cardboard characters, made to press the emotional buttons especially popular today. Because real people don't say "You gave an old woman a little moment of joy". Because death and loneliness and loss and memory are all so much more than this Hallmark card of a story.

Because it's so fake, and so corny.

I agree that it at least seems fake. She's moving out her home at 02:30 AM to move into a hospice? They take a detour and she's two hours late, yet the orderlies are immediately around to assist her (presumably it's 04:30 AM now)? There are no details in the story, like place names, that would support the claim that it's a true story.

I'll also add that he claims he was a driver for Yellow Cab. His boss is going to be pissed if he spent half the night not collecting fares. Edit: As noted by tptacek he was probably an independent contractor.

Also he mentioned that impoverished people relied on the taxis. Impoverished people cannot afford taxis and taxi drivers are not big on giving free rides.

Impoverished people don't have any other choice.

It's part of how it's easy to stay poor. There was a while when all I had was a bicycle. When my bike got stolen I didn't have the money for another one, but over the next three months spent more than a bike would have cost on unavoidable and otherwise-impossible transportation. Mostly I walked (including three miles to work each day), but sometimes the cost of the cab was less than the money I'd loose by not being somewhere.

I was poor growing up. Rarely did we take a cab. We were lucky to have a decent bus system that was $0.50 and would take you all around the small town we lived. The fact is that we were so poor there is no way we could have paid the taxi fare & taxis don't take food stamps.

I do understand that public transit is not available for everyone, but for people who are impoverished, often the $10 - $20 for a cab ride isn't available either.

Honestly the inclusion of him helping the impoverished and old ladies just seems to be him buttering up his image for the story.

Clearly in a small town with good bus service, a taxi would rarely be needed for things you need a car for.

But there are plenty of large towns and cities that have terrible bus service.

I would still find it unlikely that a poor person could keep a regular taxicab habit going unless they were bailing on fares.

Cab drivers, including Yellow Cab drivers, don't work for "Yellow Cab". Each individual cab is a franchise operation with its own P&L. Cab drivers don't typically have "bosses".

It does look like you are right, though some companies do hire drivers to a more typical wage, that is not the norm. So I retract my assertion that his boss would be angry.

I'm going to take a moment to burn a little karma.

May you choke on your cynicism while you sleep.

Edit: what, no downvotes? Clearly I have no idea what motivates you people.

You seem like a nice human being, truly wishing death upon someone because they find your precious sob story hokey is the hallmark of someone who is empathic and mature.

EDIT: Oh wait, I see now! It was not your intention to actually emulate the hilariously 2D caricatures in the story and be sympathetic and nice to all comers, no that something you reserve for the safe idealized realm of fiction where there is no chance for disappointment by the messy and contradictory things we call humans. I've got your ticket man and you seem to be in good company with the majority of HN, I mean who would have guessed that the money hungry posers on this site would be into empty sentimentality?

You see the little gray triangles to the left of my post? Click the one pointing down and be about your business.

Edit: you talk too much.

He doesn't have enough karma to do that.

Cynicism mostly. One can hope for that as a prime motivator. Clearly, lazy sentimentality isn't good for recognizing the real suffering and injustice being experienced in this world.

The story brought to mind the movie Crash (2004). I remember thinking "wow, this is basically just manipulating me as a viewer to bring a tear to my eye" – and it worked, just as this story did.

Because not all of us are affected emotionally to the same extent as you?

I can agree that the person telling the story did a good deed without feeling overly moved by the story.

I'm unmoved by this sentimental drivel, and I think your urging to "please pause for a moment and ask yourself why" is the most pompous thing I have read on HN.

It's pretty obvious by that this is some egotistical generic write up. Do good things, don't brag with them, at least thats how I learned it.

because it probably is not true

edit: it seems to be true in the sense that the guy wrote it in a book years ago http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/c/cabbie.htm

I think it probably is true, but there's not enough evidence either way to allow that to be a factor.

Because I get email forwards like this all the time, written by some bored political pr email hack on his lunch break just sharpening his craft (you know the guys who create those shady emails about Obama that get forwarded around right-wing circles).

Seriously, #1 on HN and it's not even remotely about hacking.

Flagged.

Because its an overdone cliche? I think we've all heard this story 1000 times. I believe there was also recently a movie made about this story (or something like it. In the movie, it was an old man who was suicidal).

Not to discount it, just saying that not making you cry is t that bizarre.

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