While I sympathize with the former Zume employees, I am not at all displeased to see that automated crap-factory disappear. The pizza crust was truly horrible. Seriously, if I want pizza that perfunctory, I can buy any number of premade crusts and screw up the job myself. The Zume business model reminded me vaguely of the Juicero business model, insofar as the team brainstorming this concept completely lost sight of what they were trying to accomplish.
4 Likes
Everyone can go home until next year now. You will not do better than this majestic pun.
5 Likes
I think the plan at this point for all these companies is:
- Con Masayoshi Son into believing that your idea is going to be âthe Uber/Airbnb/Tesla of [insert industry].â (This appears to be the easy part).
- Get billions in investment capital.
- Pull as much money as you can out of the company before the wheels come off the clown car.
- Repeat.
8 Likes
To make a pizza making robot go in the hometown of pizza. Naples.
This is a research project in robotics and computer vision.
Is implied that the money is âlostâ, but is a research grant.
On the other hand there are industrial machines that could make precooked pizza. There are electromechanical PLC-controlled systems that are plain old engineering.
These could be built to make a profit but arenâ't sexy for a venture capital.
5 Likes
Does that really matter though? Itâs still part of slut-shaming culture, analogizing to the idea that virtue is somehow inversely proportional to the number of sexual partners with which one has been. Specifically, saying âpizza slutâ is saying that itâs worth is less because itâs like promiscuous people in that itâs standards are lower.
Historically the connotation invokes women because women have been predominately shamed for sexual prowess while men have been predominately rewarded (albeit in a hypocritical wink wink nod nod manner which flies in the face of supposedly chaste values). So while making the Pizza Slut pun on Pizza Hutâs lackluster pizza may seem like merely clever word play, the fact is that it invokes the culture of slut shaming that denigrates promiscuity (and especially female promiscuity) to augment the so-called joke.
Now look, if people want to make tasteless puns, thatâs their deal. But they should at least face the reality of why âPizza Slutâ carries the cultural cachet that it does.
9 Likes
When this was first announced all I could see was all the parts that would still have to be cleaned by humans as per health codes.
4 Likes
I just assume that âSoftbankâ is another way of saying, âmoney launderingâ.
6 Likes
Well said, thank you for writing it. I get too angry to reply coherently.
When someone raises an issue with gendered, racial, ability, ethnic, cultural, etc, based slurs, the right response is always: âMy apologies for thoughtlessly using that phrasing. You raise an important point and I probably should not use that insult going forward, I am sure I can find one that does not have the side effects that one does.â
NOT fâing argue about why, no, it is totally ok to use it and it is the other personâs problem.
4 Likes
Having worked for a few years to get a startup off the ground with awesome technology and high p(success) this sort of thing pisses me off. We would have been set with 1/30 of that to work with.
4 Likes
And here I thought the robots had taken over and were dispensing with the lowly humans. Came for the Robopocalypse, left disappointed.
4 Likes
I just assume that âSoftbankâ is another way of saying, âmoney launderingâ.
Perhaps, but not wildly likely; the private investment space was ripe for picking after companies were desperate for cash in the credit crunch after 2008. Today it tends to be very slim pickings. You might be surprised at the disappointingly banal reasons why private investments go ahead in some cases and not in others.
Or you might be a student of humanity and not so surprised⌠
2 Likes
You do realize why insults are insults, correct?
Furthermore, I understand your point, and I apologize for offending you, but you. Do. Not. Define. All. Discourse. Everyone else gets a vote, as well, for both good and ill. My MOTHER is the one who taught me that name for Pizza Hut, in the first place. She gets a vote.
Notably, my mom would tear my skin off, if I referred to another person in an insulting manner this way, but she also uses the word for Pizza Hut and for very affectionate cats. Context matters. For example, itâs completely appropriate and correct to refer to a female dog as a âbitchâ. Another person, however? Nope.
Iâll take your advice to heart but you should be aware that your stance will tend to push people to do exactly what annoys you. And before you argue, Iâve already seen exactly that happen many times. Yes, it IS possible to overreact to this kind of thing.
Note: âOther personâs problemââŚ? No. Keep your words in your own mouth, please. Thank you.
I want to be crystal clear about a few things.
One, I know for a fact that @orenwolf understands the difficulties of intersectionality and that also he was endeavoring to check his own biases. I canât overstate how much I admire that, even if sometimes Iâm not entirely onboard with what valuable moderators and fellow interlocutors express. All forums should be so fortunate as to have the level of caring moderators as this one has now and in the past. The internet would be a far far better place.
Two, I do believe @Bozobub is receptive to constructive conversation. I donât seriously reply to commenters who I believe are arguing in bad faith. I may be wrong in either direction, as I have in the past, but I donât wish to be misconstrued. Yes, I very much disagree with his argument; thatâs not anger.
Yes, it does. As does multilateral empathy.
8 Likes
Fair enough.
1 Like
Iâm a fan of cheap pizza. Seriously. Sure, thereâs BETTER pizza, but something about the cardboard pizza reminds me of⌠childhood? Probably young adulthood when I was poor and couldnât afford much and a frozen pizza was a bit of a treat compared to more ramen.
2 Likes
And this is why Boing Boing forums are some of the few I regularly read and participate in. You folks rock, and you teach me a great deal every day. Thanks!
2 Likes
For what it is worth, from your responses you clearly do not understand the issues around using gendered slurs.
And your advice to shut up and take because that makes people do it more is stale and usually used for victim blaming. When I see them, I will continue to point out that gendered, age, ability, etc based slurs should be avoided because they reinforce damaging stereotypes, even if you think your use of them is ok.
I appreciated Oren pointing it out as it deserved to be called out.
I am done engaging with you on this.
1 Like
Here we goâŚ
So what youâre saying is that your area is underserved, eh?
6 Likes
Say a giant middle east conflagration thing were to happen, right in the vicinity of Saudi Arabia⌠Like say, more refineries bombed, or even a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz⌠Whatâs going to happen to all of SoftBankâs glorious investments once the Saudi sovereign wealth fund is in jeopardy?
1 Like
