Practicing Gratitude: A Really Good Shift

Lyft's most prominent gamification mode for me in 2022 is the use of streaks. Do 3 in a row, no cancels, you get a bonus. It changes the math, but it does open you up to sudden and terrible trips to places you have no desire to go to, that will more or less ruin your shift. (That'd be New York. Anything that takes me to New York is frankly terrible. Tolls, traffic, terrible aggressive drivers, I don't know the roads or potholes, the GPS isn't infallible and I can't pick up anyone in the state. I never want to drive there. No one ever should. Moving on.)

Last night, I'm working a few hours with the goal of getting clear by 9pm, so I can take a few hours off and watch the NBA Finals game. Lyft had a 3 for $18 streak starting at 7pm. Exactly at that time, as I'm heading south on Route 1 outside of Princeton, I turn on the ap. With luck, I'll bang out 3, have a decent hour, then turn it off and head back.

Boom, boom, boom. Three short rides with three pleasant people later, with two of them tipping, I've made $37 in 30 minutes, which is to say, about as much as you can ever hope to make on this, absent a spectacular tipping moment. (I've had a couple of people in the course of 22K rides who gave me $100. More of that, please.)

More importantly, I've done so fast enough to double up on the streak bonus... but now I'm at risk of missing the game. Roll the dice.

The next three are longer and don't tip (less than 10% of passengers do, and this is a 5+ year data set)... but finishes the run 10 minutes from my house, 15 minutes before the game starts. I gassed up the car, made myself a sandwich and watched the game. 

Gratitude! (Also, go Warriors.)