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i have this principle that i use in re all silicon valley stuff which is "nothing changed since yesterday"; in other words, things you'd react to with visceral outrage or bafflement seem normal when a tech company says they are
for centuries and until five years ago, getting into a total strangers vehicle (carriage/car) was something nobody would consider normal. you don't know them and they don't know you. a vehicle is an extremely intimate, confined space with no easy exit
uber made this normal. why? you're still getting into a strangers car. they are not cab drivers who had to work hard to get and keep their job. you can become an uber driver in like half an hour. you don't know these people and there's *literally* no reason to trust them.
nothing changed since yesterday. yesterday (before Uber) if you said "I asked for a ride on Craigslist" everyone you know would have reacted with shock; "what? are you kidding? you're out of your mind"
airbnb is absolute lunacy. you don't just go stay in some absolute strangers house you know nothing about. and yes, i'm talking to you, person reading this. why do you think this is normal? why wouldn't you have done this three years ago, but will now?
this is a *house*, where you are going to spend hours affected by your environment and *behaving like you are in private*. you can become an airbnb renter in like half an hour. there's zero incentive to treat tenants responsibly and vice versa.
I personally know people who have stayed at airbnbs and then told me they did things that I would have YELLED at them for doing at my house, like going through drawers. What the fuck is wrong with you? You wouldn't have done this yesterday!
But silicon valley said that BECAUSE THERE'S THIS APP you can just shrug off ALL preexisting notions of privacy and propriety, that somehow the fact that someone tapped Register and put in their email address makes them a hotelier. They aren't! This isn't normal!
And in short order it turned out airbnbs were full of cameras, and people steal shit, and so on and so forth, and it's all COMPLETELY obvious. If there hadn't been an App you would never have done this weird, weird, deeply unusual nonsense.
You don't just go sleep in another persons house who isn't a professional hotelier, because they have no firm ties to anything and if they're doing creepy shit, there's no reason to think there's been time enough for them to be caught at it.
If you stay at a vacation house that someone rents out, you can presume pretty safely that
1) You are not the first person to stay there
2) They are hoping to do this for a very long time and make a decent profit
These things incentivize them to not abuse guests
1) You are not the first person to stay there
2) They are hoping to do this for a very long time and make a decent profit
These things incentivize them to not abuse guests
Airbnb: If a creepy fuck wants to watch strangers fuck he can buy a $20 wifi camera and install it, then list their place on airbnb the same night, get reported the next day, and walk away laughing. It costs them nothing to try!
You can become a lyft driver, get caught doing fucked up shit and get kicked out, and get replaced by another shitty person in short order. I'm saying that there is an INFINITE WELLSPRING of shitty people with cars. Turnover at a cab company isn't like that.
The normal concept of employment generally means people had to really work to get a job and losing it is unacceptable. We implicitly trust "employees of companies" because we assume they're highly invested in their job. I argue that airbnb and uber don't necessarily imply that
And this is what frosts me about Silicon Valley: okay, whatever, right? You and I know all this stuff. We know uber/lyft are Just People With Cars, and airbnb is Just Someone Elses House, and cloud is Someone Elses Computer, and IoT is A Linux Box In Your Lightbulb
But
A) We're STILL more likely to let our guard down around stuff we shouldn't and
B) People who aren't Extremely Online don't know any of this
Most people are duped into thinking Uber/Lyft are cab companies and that lightbulbs are just things you install and forget about
A) We're STILL more likely to let our guard down around stuff we shouldn't and
B) People who aren't Extremely Online don't know any of this
Most people are duped into thinking Uber/Lyft are cab companies and that lightbulbs are just things you install and forget about
you can tell me all you want that you know the nature of airbnbs and i still bet you've said some shit you wouldn't have said in public inside of one, and you have literally no reason to think they're safe and private. Silicon Valley got you to let your guard down.
That's what fucking scares me about Silicon Valley, is that they convince even my smart, with-it friends to do stuff that they wouldn't have done yesterday, to trust things they never would have trusted if they weren't covered with slick marketing slime.
Just because the bottle of juice has a custom paperboard sleeve with a thin-line font on a clean white background, you should still check the seal. If it's broken, you throw it out! Because you don't know what's in it!
I take Lyfts once in a while but I honestly don't know why. I'm not worried about being kidnapped or creeped on because I'm a 6'2" guy, I'm sure I could defend myself, but half the Lyfts I've been in, I'm shocked I survived. One time our driver got pulled over for erratic driving
Cabs are notorious for driving way too fucking fast and recklessly, but at least they're usually experienced? I've watched a guy looking at two phones at once while driving 80 on the freeway in heavy rain, at night, and wondered "what am I fucking doing here?"
This is ignoring the workers rights issues which are significant, and which prevented me from using them unless i had a decent need. But we also all buy Foxconn cellphones so let's not act like we don't make exceptions to that shit.
Genuinely, I think maybe I won't ever use one again, because there's absolutely no reason to think any given driver isn't on their first day, in the middle of a panic attack and dealing with family issues. Cab drivers I can expect to know how to work through that. Not "some guy."
I know people who drive / have driven for Lyft, but that's a whole different matter. What you do yourself, whether you do it ethically, is your business. Everyone gets whatever they can in this hell economy. But their business doesn't make sense.
If you wipe away the marketing lies, you have random strangers you know nothing about letting you get in the back of their car or sleep in their house. You wouldn't have done that yesterday, and you should ask yourself why you think it's reasonable now.
The only difference is that this guy told you it was okay, but if you're following me then I'm pretty sure you hate that guy and know he's a liar. 
I'm not saying you're a bad person, but I *do* believe you got duped. Even if you keep using these services, I think you should never forget how dubious they are.
