3 ms·

I know Brian personally and he is one of the nicest persons I've worked with in the valley. He also sincerely cares about his customers. I am surprised that any

by yasmine 15y ago

I know Brian personally and he is one of the nicest persons I've worked with in the valley. He also sincerely cares about his customers. I am surprised that anyone would think of him in that way.

alnayyir 15y ago
I'm making this analogy extreme for the sake of clarity not because I think it's legitimately comparable: Charles Manson's friends and followers were pretty fond of him too. Leadership of a company tends to attract rather extreme personalities in all kinds of directions. One of the tendencies that is extremely common is sociopathy. Sociopathy is usually found is charismatic, likable people, but those people don't actually care about your welfare. I don't know if Chesky is a sociopath or not, I can't say one way or the other, but the way he spoke to EJ smacked of the single-minded self-absorption of one. But that doesn't mean a sociopath can't be charming as hell at a party. That's how they succeed.
- hooande 15y ago
  Let me clear this up for you: Brian Chesky is not a sociopath.
  - rdl 15y ago
    Definitely not a sociopath (he and Joe are great guys; the AirBnB people I've met have all come across as much more social and friendly than most other startups). Actually, a sociopath with $5b at risk over $10-20k might actually do a better job managing this kind of thing than a genuinely good guy who doesn't constantly think about how to defraud of hurt people and then lie to cover it up.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
lyudmil 15y ago
I'm sorry, but how could you be surprised? If the facts are as laid out in the post, he doesn't always care about his customers enough. That wouldn't be opinion, but objectively true. I don't see any room for surprise here, especially given that most people here don't personally know Mr. Chesky and are likely more even-handed in their assessment than you are.

3 ms·

I know Brian personally and he is one of the nicest persons I've worked with in the valley. He also sincerely cares about his customers. I am surprised that any

by yasmine 15y ago

I know Brian personally and he is one of the nicest persons I've worked with in the valley. He also sincerely cares about his customers. I am surprised that anyone would think of him in that way.

alnayyir 15y ago
I'm making this analogy extreme for the sake of clarity not because I think it's legitimately comparable: Charles Manson's friends and followers were pretty fond of him too. Leadership of a company tends to attract rather extreme personalities in all kinds of directions. One of the tendencies that is extremely common is sociopathy. Sociopathy is usually found is charismatic, likable people, but those people don't actually care about your welfare. I don't know if Chesky is a sociopath or not, I can't say one way or the other, but the way he spoke to EJ smacked of the single-minded self-absorption of one. But that doesn't mean a sociopath can't be charming as hell at a party. That's how they succeed.
- hooande 15y ago
  Let me clear this up for you: Brian Chesky is not a sociopath.
  - rdl 15y ago
    Definitely not a sociopath (he and Joe are great guys; the AirBnB people I've met have all come across as much more social and friendly than most other startups). Actually, a sociopath with $5b at risk over $10-20k might actually do a better job managing this kind of thing than a genuinely good guy who doesn't constantly think about how to defraud of hurt people and then lie to cover it up.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
lyudmil 15y ago
I'm sorry, but how could you be surprised? If the facts are as laid out in the post, he doesn't always care about his customers enough. That wouldn't be opinion, but objectively true. I don't see any room for surprise here, especially given that most people here don't personally know Mr. Chesky and are likely more even-handed in their assessment than you are.