Embracing Change

Embracing change is hard for all of us, humans tend to resist change and stay with the Status Quo, but change is usually good for Humanity and helps push us forward as a species.
My Daughter must have seen The Little Mermaid over 1000 times during the first few years of her life.  At first she loved the colors and the music and as she got older she loved the movie and moved on to Mulan, for the next 1000 views.

Last year, I entered the Ride-share world by becoming a Lyft Driver.  6 Months ago, I entered the Food Delivery business by becoming a Dasher and last month, I applied to Amazon Flex to enter the package delivery business. All 3 of these independent contractor opportunities have 1 thing in common, delivery apps tied into Google Maps.

Flashback to 1981, I was a Computer Science Student at Stony Brook University, learning programming using punch cards, taking classes with teachers that now have University Streets and Buildings named after them, like Marberger Drive.  She was talking about a new idea, recursive algorithms, which allows programs to make a decision, gather information about that choice, and then go back to that starting point and make a different decision and gather information on that choice and so on, and so on, and so on until all possible outcomes have been explored, letting tbe program decide the best option based on the goals of the program.  She mentioned a mapping application to determine the best route from point A to point B.  Combining this recursive algorithm technology along with GPS technology, Google Maps was born, which is the backbone of the three delivery apps I mentioned above and many more.

Rideshare Apps... Lyft, Uber, Via, Juno
Food Delivery Apps... DoorDash, Uber Eats, GrubHub
Package Delivery Apps... Amazon Flex

CBS News Reported on February that for the first time in history, U.S, Restaurants are projecting to make more money form food consumed outside their doors.  Food Delivery swelled to a $10 Billion Industry, which just started in the early 2000's.  It took just under 2 decades to reach that point.

**** Actually, now with this new world we are living in, Restaurants hit 100% of their food consumed outside their doors this week!

There is a lot of cross over between these apps, but they all have in common an army of Independent Contractors available to service the needs of the communities.

As a Lyft Driver, I have driven riders to 7-11 and back so they can do their shopping, driven riders to Subway and back to work to get their lunch and I have heard people us Lyft to deliver packages, such as auto parts to a mechanic.

As a DoorDash Driver, Handy Pantry and 24 hour deli's are on the list of restaurants, so we can do so food shopping for our DoorDash Clients.

As a Future Amazon Flex driver, I can see them, along with packages, deliver Amazon Fresh and Grocery store deliveries, as long as the stores pick and packages the order.

All this was possible because we were able to embrace change and build upon what was done previously.