I’m Not Giving Uber Driver Advice

Ever share something… and someone immediately responds with, “yeah, but…”?

I posted a video the other day about Uber Driver Diamond vs. Blue experiment I ran. It was simple, real data, real results, nothing exaggerated. Just something I observed and thought might be useful or interesting to share. And almost instantly, the comments came in: “not in my market,” “every city is different,” “don’t compare markets.”

And honestly, yeah… I know.

Of course, every market is different. Every country, state, city, driver, car, and situation is unique. Every ride is different. That part isn’t wrong. But where I struggle is what comes next. If everything is different, then what exactly are we allowed to learn from each other?

Because I’m not giving advice.

I’m not telling you what to do. I don’t know your situation, market, car, or goals. I’m not saying, “Here’s how you should drive Uber.” I’m just showing you what happened. That’s it. And I think there’s value in that, even if your situation isn’t identical to mine.

There’s a big difference between telling someone what to do and showing them what you saw. A lot of content out there is built around instructions, do this, don’t do that, accept these rides, reject those rides. That’s fine, and I understand why people want that. It’s clear, it’s actionable, and it feels like control.

That’s just not what I’m trying to do.

I’m more interested in patterns, experiments, and experiences. I want to understand how the system behaves, not just how to game it. When I ran that experiment, I wasn’t trying to prove a universal rule. I was trying to observe something and see what I could learn from it. And when I share that, I’m not saying, “Copy me.” I’m saying, “What do you see?”

But the moment someone says “not in my market,” the conversation basically ends.

It sounds like engagement, but it’s really just a way out. It skips the part where we compare, think, and ask questions. A more useful response would be, “How is my situation different?” or “What part of that might apply here?” That’s where insight actually comes from, not from copying, and not from dismissing, but from comparing.

If I share something that happened to me, the goal isn’t for you to say, “That’s exactly my situation.” The goal is to figure out what’s similar, what’s different, and why. That’s how you actually learn anything in a world where everything is constantly changing.

And this isn’t just about Uber. It happens everywhere. You share something you like, and instead of asking why, someone tells you why it’s wrong. You present an idea, and instead of exploring it, it gets shut down in one sentence. It’s like we’ve lost the ability to just be curious about other people’s experiences.

For me, this whole podcast, this channel, everything I’m building, it’s really just an exchange of experiences. Sometimes it’s data. Sometimes it’s a story. Sometimes it’s just something weird that happened on a random day. But it all comes back to the same idea: here’s what I saw.

You don’t have to agree with it. You don’t have to change anything you’re doing. But maybe there’s something in it for you.

If there’s something here for you, don’t dismiss it, consider it. That’s where new ideas start.