• tino@lemmy.world
      1·
      23 days ago

      years ago, a big boss of an evil hotel company I worked was doing a AMA and got asked “where do we draw the line on ethics?”. His answer was “at the end of the day, if you don’t feel comfortable telling your mother what you did today, then don’t do it” I loved this answer and used this very often.

      Then a few months later, he directly made us work on the dirtiest geopricing / yelding features I ever saw. I guess the real question to ask during that day was “where do your mother draw the line on ethics?”

        • tino@lemmy.world
          1·
          22 days ago

          Thanks for asking. I found the idea to be an unethical dark pattern, so I made my point, but in companies like these, it’s not enough. So I implemented a light experiment of what was asked, and it validated my hypothesis: it was not solving a real need and was actually not even improving revenue, and that it was indeed leading to a poorer user experience. Since the request was really pushed top down, I still had to move on with so I limited it to the specific population where it would make more money. Who has the most money to spend in cheaper countries? US tourists going to Latin America. Let’s make it more expensive for Americans to stay in a Colombian hotel than for a local. It pleased the small hotel owners, had a positive impact on local tourism… good enough.

          Then I moved to a different team and they threw away my work went full on and delivered the whole shit.

  • teslekova@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    23 days ago

    Honestly the illegal cab company has been the most useful for me. Sometimes my car breaks down.

    Mind you, the best illegal service I ever used was Dream market. Very convenient for buying acid and weed.

    • frog@feddit.uk
      1·
      23 days ago

      I agree. Set prices are a game changer especially if you are visiting in another country. Drivers are less likely to rip off tourists and communication is a lot better.

  • nialv7@lemmy.world
    1·
    23 days ago

    airbnb was cool, i have fond memories of meeting interesting new people this way. then it enshittified and is now generally worse than hotels every time.

    so there is no longer a marketplace where you can get the house sharing experience, which is sad.

  • Auth@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    23 days ago

    Fake money for criminals is awesome I use it when im doing criminal activity online.

  • maplesaga@lemmy.world
    01·
    22 days ago

    The plagiarism machine is eroding any moat a company like Disney has for gatekeeping media, the way its going a tiny group of people can replace a studio. This will usher in an era of free media and allow a real culture to develop that a for-profit corporation could never create.

    The cab company alternative was a taxi, which was a government granted monopoly known for having extortionate prices.

    Using a public ledger that can be tied directly to a person is an awfully silly way to hide a crime, exchanging cash or some other untraceable medium of exchange is far safer.

    Hotels I can agree with, but only because zoning laws prevent density from forming automatically when theres more demand for scarce real estate. Its really only a problem due to municipal zoning laws which are the main cause of rising home values.

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
      1·
      22 days ago

      Disney has for gatekeeping media,

      Disney hired real artists. Their artists did such amazing work that everyone copied Disney which caused the gatekeeping. Nothing stopped artist from not copying Disney to create their own works like Pixar before they were bought by Disney. AI art comes from training on existing art. So its not expanding culture to cut and paste existing art. It’s a great time saver for home users to create art that is out of their ability. But its not a substitute for real artists.

      The cab company alternative was a taxi, which was a government granted monopoly known for having extortionate prices.

      Which existed because to prevent congestion, accountability against criminal acts, and maintained an employee/employer relationship. Despite its drawbacks, employees have more rights than gig economy workers.

      I guess what’s next is an app Airplane company that ignores all regulations and lands on parking lots because it will be cheaper than following the laws. So what if a few people die if tens of thousands save money and have more convenience.

      Using a public ledger that can be tied directly to a person

      Its far more easy to trace money in a bank account or made through a credit card than crypto. In most cases crypto is completely untraceable until turned into real money that’s deposited into a bank.