Uber: Pimp My Ride

So Pearl and I were talking today about "the sharing economy" as a Time magazine article called it, and how Uber works so well without having hardly any physical objects of value (Uber doesn't need to own cars, big buildings, etc.).  They offer an infrastructure and a name to stand under so that just about anybody can use their own resources, on their own schedule, working however much they want, to offer a service on the market and make money.  It seems so genius!  The company just needs to try to standardize its rides to a degree that consumers know what they are getting when they purchase an Uber ride, and then the rest is up to the drivers: to provide their own cars, to make sure their riders get where they need to be, to work enough that demand is met (and when it isn't Uber so wisely increases rates to lure more drivers out), etc etc.
This seems very similar to prostitution.  A pimp provides infrastructure (and that's it) so that women can each have the "freedom" to sell something that is already theirs.  The pimp has nothing to sell to consumers, like Uber when it's stripped bare of all its drivers, but instead offers a framework by which people can sell something they could have sold otherwise, but would have had a much harder time doing so without the name Uber offers or the protection a pimp offers.
Disclaimer My understanding of the two businesses is certainly limited so hopefully that connection isn't too forced or offensive (to compare the uglies of prostitution to driving people around in your car).

Anyway, it's taking me a while to get used to blogging... 

This thought (about Uber) was interesting during our musings earlier in the day, but just now, due to feeling guilty about writing so little in my New-Year's-resolution-blog, I thought I'd "revive" it for the sole purpose of posting it.  That feels forced, like most of the other times I think about posting something -- why is this thought worth preserving?  It's not really like I'll look back in a couple months and think "God damn!  Now that was a high quality thought! I'm glad I took half an hour to write that down!"  (I'll probably appreciate the clever title though)  Nor do I feel like any of the potential future people I'll tell about my blog really need to hear my thoughts on ride-pimping; this whole thought process really just fit in that conversation between just Pearl and me.

So maybe I should start writing more about events and things that I really want to remember down the road.  

This Valentine's Day (yesterday) I scrambled in a zipcar in the morning to Myopic bookstore and hid 5 old ticketstubs and receipts from some of the dates Pearl and I have been on, each with some sort of a note on them, in various books in the bookstore --

1. one was in a dream interpretation book we saw and talked about the time we went to Myopic before,
2. one was in the Agatha Christie section in the basement because we had read And Then There Were None together at the same time over Christmas break (and Pearl was so good at predicting who did it all)
3. one was hiding in 50 Shades Darker because 50 Shades of Grey came out yesterday and we joked about watching it together as our V day celebration, but they were out of that, plus I thought it'd be funny for her to have to ask where it was (the sex stuff is all in the front of the store FYI)
4. one was in a Rachel Ray cookbook so that Pearl'd have to go upstairs (and it's something to do with cooking; I looked but couldn't find any other good cookbooks to use); plus Pearl has a bunch of Rachel Ray cooking pans
5. the last was in Pride and Prejudice because Pearl supposedly really likes that book

So later in the day I went to her place and she'd cooked me lunch (which was very sweet).  Then she rented Guardians of the Galaxy for us to watch (such a fun movie!!), after which I sent her on her adventure to the bookstore while I attempted to make dinner for the two of us.  She'd also written a very sweet card which I read several times while cooking.  After a few hours she came home with donuts and tons of appreciation (which is one of Pearl's great strengths/virtues), and we ate and had a bottle of wine to share during a night of questions and discussions and joking and just plain old catching up, which was amazing.  And that was Valentine's Day with my valentine!  Then today we lazily got out of the apartment around 1 to go to brunch (and walked through the snow the two blocks to get there) and had our pimp conversation after that.  So all in all, a great weekend that is worth remembering, and while that was probably too lovey dovey or had too little/not enough detail to actually keep the interest of a general audience, it was more fun to write than the Uber stuff and feels like a more valuable update.  So maybe that's how I should blog from now on -- events I want to remember and thoughts about seeing the world in a different light (like the statistics post).  That's it for now, thanks for reading Pearl!