Susan Fowler fears she's now the target of a smear campaign

https://twitter.com/susanthesquark/status/835193441814392833

by dsr12 • 9 years ago

90 26 9 years ago

twitter.com

pravula• 9 years ago

Who didn't see this coming? This is a company whose SVP threatened to do exactly this, publicly, to a journalist.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/18/7240215/uber-exec-casuall...

a3n• 9 years ago

In that incident, if "it's wrong" wasn't enough to dissuade them not to do that, then "because if it ever looks like we do this in the future it will be totally believable" should be enough. But I suppose some people will always want the marshmallow immediately.

And I suppose, today, Uber better be hoping none of its ex, current or future ex-employees ever get assaulted, baseball bat or not. For PR or legal defense, if not for actual human empathy.

Preemo• 9 years ago

Is anyone else getting tired of Uber as a whole? There's nothing amazing about the company itself, they've hardly been innovative beyond the idea of ride-sharing. Can't wait for Uber to crumble from the top down starting with their over-zealous, dark-triad CEO.

pktgen• 9 years ago

Not to mention their business model appears unsustainable to begin with:

Part 1: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/11/can-uber-ever-deliver...

Part 2: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/12/can-uber-ever-deliver...

Part 3: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/12/can-uber-ever-deliver...

Part 4: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/12/can-uber-ever-deliver...

Part 5: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/12/can-uber-ever-deliver...

Part 6: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/01/can-uber-ever-deliver...

Part 7: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/01/can-uber-ever-deliver...

projectorlochsa3• 9 years ago

Business model is fine it's just that the problem that arises from the wanted business model is hard. Given their bad reputation, especially now, they just don't have quality engineers to solve the problem.

Ride sharing is computationally NP-hard (assuming vehicle capacity larger than 2), the whole fleet management itself is NP-hard and depends highly on the realtime routing capabilities and prediction.

To make a combinatorial optimization algorithm capable of incorporating ride-sharing constraints and realtime data is a serious feat which maybe they jumped in too early to solve (given that no current research published tries anything similar). For really groundbreaking work to happen one needs quality engineers and researchers, and realistically, who would want to work in a company that is openly criticized for having terrible work culture?

The only way they can lower the prices and then find the sweetspot prices after monopoly is by having superior machine learning and combinatorial optimization solution.

DougN7• 9 years ago

I'm getting tired of Uber. And AirBnB too for that matter. I don't know anything about the company, but the business model and rediculous valuation seems pretty much the same.

pasbesoin• 9 years ago

I've been experiencing something similar in my own life.

It comes down to basically believing what I immediately see and experience, rather than or regardless of: 1) What I am told; 2) What I might hope for -- either immediately or "at some point in the future".

There is a saying -- an aphorism? -- for this, that applies particularly -- but not only -- to initial impressions. (I won't say "first", in case of a literal bad day for someone.)

When someone shows you who [or what] they are, believe them.

This is also phrased as:

When someone tells you who [or what] they are, believe them.

When I reflect back on experiences with people who have ultimately disappointed me, I often find that indeed, they were telling me more or less directly that this would happen.

In descriptions of themselves. In descriptions of their other relationships. Sometimes in a particularly poignant word or sentence. It was there -- they were telling me so, right at the start.

I find that for institutions, too. And the personalities that comprise them and guide them.

Hell, in this case, even their name choice: U[e]ber. Really?

purple-again2• 9 years ago

I'm confused, where is the evidence of a smear campaign? She was a big news story that's spawned a bunch of other stories in the past few days. It's expected there would be a bunch of journalists and bloggers sniffing around looking to do a story about her.

I'm not a fan of Uber either, but just based on that tweet it seems a little disengenuos to start another round of hammering the company.

pain_perdu2• 9 years ago

I have personally witnessed (and have evidence to support) Uber being extremely heavy-handed in response to valid allegations about them. My experience was they absolutely have people standing-by to research and goto great lengths to undermine negative truths that arise about the company.

debatem13• 9 years ago

Can you provide your evidence? Who are the people that they have standing by?

I wonder if it would be possible to convince those people to support a better cause. There's a dire need for some good investigative journalism right about now.

simplicio• 9 years ago

Fowler's next tweet emphasizes that she doesn't know who is doing the digging. She doesn't accuse Uber, and it might well be someone else.

But given that Uber famously threatened to spend a million dollars digging up dirt on critics, and Fowler just wrote critically about her experiences at that company, its hardly surprising that people jump to the conclusion that Uber is doing what they once threatened to do.

paulpauper• 9 years ago

look at her twitter before and after this scandal broke..now it's hugely popular...before it only had <5 hearts+retweets per tweet. now hundreds. Maybe this is part of a bigger self-promotion plan to sell amazon books and get affiliate revenue. She provided no documented proof..no screenshots. Maybe she determined there was no legal recourse, so she went to social media? The only info we have is that single blog post.

purple-again2• 9 years ago

Sigh, that's swinging the pendulum too far the other way friend. Serious public accusations like that only 2 years into her career is a pretty silly way to get popular. If they turn out to be untrue she's unlikely to ever work in the industry again. It makes so little sense that it's easy to give her the benefit of doubt on her original accusations. It's also easy to understand that she may be paranoid of retribution and overreacting about a smear campaign. Or maybe it's true, we're talking about Uber after all.

I'm simply pointing out that her tweet is not enough evidence of fault to start another round of bashing the company as if it is true.

hn_throwaway_99• 9 years ago

If there's one thing I've learned about these types of stories in general, it's that there is no benefit to jumping to conclusions until all the information is in. I was also shocked by the sheer audacity of the behavior described in Susan Fowler's blog post, but the "good" news about her story is that pretty much all of the incidents can be backed up by either an extensive paper trail or numerous other witnesses or victims. All of that data should come out in short order.

pinewurst• 9 years ago

Uber denies this (not that I'm defending their history): http://www.recode.net/2017/2/24/14728660/uber-says-its-not-b...

TorKlingberg• 9 years ago

It might not be Uber. It could be regular internet misogynists.

sn9• 9 years ago

Or anyone with a financial interest in Uber doing well.

enahs-sf• 9 years ago

Uber has been the subject of a fair amount of bad press in the past few weeks. I wonder what it would take for a Zenefits-style meltdown to occur there.

opinionsarelike• 9 years ago

looks like Uber's day of strong arming everything are over. good riddance. i always knew it was a cesspool of ego

beckler• 9 years ago

Uber has done this before.

Even though it was under different circumstances...

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/26/nyregion/investigation-of...

Susan Fowler fears she's now the target of a smear campaign

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