Hacker News Reader

Comment by avs733 | Hacker News Reader

I would be curious to see independent citations of these claims.

This is hardly an original insight: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-uber-makes-its-drivers-pay-...

And WSJ's survey (above) indicates that many Uber drivers are not actually aware that this is where the money is effectively coming from.

“ And WSJ's survey (above) indicates that many Uber drivers are not actually aware that this is where the money is effectively coming from”

Which is another way of saying that they don’t understand the economics enough to know they’re accepting a bad deal?

Yes, basically. And it's certainly not in Uber's interest to help them understand.

Talk with the driver few times? I never had a Uber driver who said they would rather have a normal job. 500+ rides.

Selection bias…

So non-uber drivers don't want to be uber drivers and uber drivers want to be uber drivers? Or what? There was practically nothing else in common between each driver other than their desire to continue working with Uber as they do now. Where's the bias? 500+ rides (probably significantly more bcs I have two accounts) are large enough sample.

The selection consists solely of current Uber drivers, excluding all drivers who chose to stop and take an alternative job. As well, drivers in the act of driving are less likely to admit that they do not want to be doing what they are currently doing, due to cognitive dissonance.

Additionally, there likely exists a framing bias along with a false dichotomy, if they were asked whether they’d rather Uber or take a “normal job”. There are of course plenty of alternatives that are not “normal jobs” (whatever that is exactly).

Anyways, anecdotally, I’ve had drivers who were not happy with Uber and continued only out of lack of current options or plain inertia.

Survivorship bias, which is a subtype of selection bias, is what I was contemplating along those lines.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

Now if I could somehow know whether I have any biases I should be aware of, I’d greatly appreciate that information, Steve.

Yup, this selection bias is also survivorship bias.

I have a good friend, ex-Navy submariner, and highly competent industrial technician. He's been driving for Doordash since 2019 now, because he just can't ever make it work with any kind of management in a typical corporate or small-business environment. I'm sure he'd be much more productive as a consultant, in his field of expertise if there were an app for that, but for him, the gig-econonmy, accepting all its down sides, is the preferable way to earn money. I've found it really interesting, that he would accept 2-4x pay reduction, just to be relieved of certain areas of responsibility and accountability.

another Deliverator.

I have several friends and aquaintances who drive for uber (and lyft, etc), who are barely scraping by, and are doing it out of desperation, not because they prefer it to other available jobs that are more "normal".

They are driving for Uber because they can't find/get/keep such a job. Of course everyone driving for uber is doing so because it's the best thing they can find, they wouldn't prefer a job that pays them even less. But the people I know doing it don't love it or prefer it to a "normal" job, they just do it cause it's available and they need to pay the rent.

As someone whose virtual in-game company has grown so much that I lost track how much things cost and how much money I am actually making. I would argue it is very common. This is in a game where there are already turn key spreadsheets that tell you how much profit you are theoretically getting per day. The problem is that your "pipelines" are long and you may end up stock piling stuff for two weeks buying at one price and selling another.

I doubt most Uber drivers are whipping out a spreadsheet and pondering for 3 hours before they commit to the job. That is how much time I spend before I build a new base and lots of those were canceled before they got build.

What game are you talking about? Is it eve online?

Sounds like it could. The logistical pipeline for advanced industries used to be... Intricate. And usually depended on exploiting "gig economy" miners at the bottom, come to think of it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com