• The upper middle class San Mateo guy with a thick mustache and a deep hearty laugh who bought a house in the hills and drives Uber because he lost his daughter and brother to cancer. As he told me about his daughter’s last days, he began to tear up - taking his glasses off to rub the sides of his eyes

• The Nigerian immigrant who came to Palo Alto in 1980, bought 5 houses (the first one for $160,000), gave one each to his three children (two of whom went to Stanford and work at Google), drives Uber because it keeps valid the taxi medallion he bought for $10,000 (and is now worth $500K), and lectured me for 35 minutes to buy Oakland property with a 50% down payment

• The nice Eastern European lady in Austin who drove me twice in two days (the only time I ever had the same driver more than once) who moved from SF to be a translator. We were stuck in traffic together and chatted about her life and children

• The Chinese guy in China who drove me to the airport, telling me in broken English about how much UberChina was paying him in subsidies and how much Shanghai has changed in the decades

• The Chinese guy with a twinge of an accent who drove Uber because his family didn’t want him doing his old job as a truck driver. He told me as a truck driver you could make $4K a month doing just 2 weeks of work. He started with Uber and two weeks later has finished 100+ rides, garnering recognition from corporate

• The black guy who came up from LA to work with his former next door neighbor, who has started a solar energy company. The solar cell panel device his neighbor invented supposedly works even if you mount it on the side of the house (That part is shaded by other houses right? I am not quite how that works)

• The smooth talking 25 year old who only drives from 2 am to 6 am, makes $100+ a day driving to the airport and then spends the rest of his day with his daughter

• The young Singaporean man who told me about his university studies and asked me with wonderment about what it is like to be in America, stared outside at the hellish pouring rain and offhandedly said, “Yup that’s Singapore for you”

• The Filipino-American who wanted to raise his kids in the Philippines but have them born here so that they can have American citizenship. He told me about his house in SF and how that after it gets paid off it would be his “legacy to his children”. He also advised me to get a Filipino wife

• The Shanghainese guy in China who spoke to me in such a thick Shanghai accent that I had no idea what was going on and couldn’t pick me up because there was a “fence”.

I have been riding Uber for 2 years now. It’s been super interesting.