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Blogger with a Cause

Kai Chan
Kai Chan
Sep 3, 2018 · 3 min read

This is part of my experiment to write regularly and publish every day with the help of 365 Days of Writing Prompts. Today’s prompt: “If your day to day responsibilities were taken care of and you could throw yourself completely behind a cause, what would it be?”

If my day to day responsibilities were taken care of and I could throw myself completely behind a cause, it would be: making the world a better place by programming.

Wait, isn’t it what I currently do. Yes. I am lucky to work for a cause that I like for a living. I never take it for granted.

So the question becomes: How would I throw myself complete behind the cause? The question is not clear on the particular scenario, i.e. what caused my day to day responsibilities to be taken care of. Therefore, I am going to consider several scenarios.

Scenario 1: Universal Basic Income (UBI) gets implemented.

I would still work as if there were no UBI, even if UBI allowed me to live comfortably without working? Why? I am a person who likes and enjoys working even if I do not have to. I do not see why I have to stop working even if I get UBI. I will work because of the time well spent, for the useful things I can build, and possibly for the extra income.

But let’s say I could not work for a job (even freelance) anymore, for some reason. I would definitely still program, I just might not be paid. There are lots of good programming-related causes. Program for some open source projects. Teach programming. Donate my time to non-profits that cannot afford to buy software or hire programmers. Find interesting ideas and work on implementing them.

Scenario 2: My boss tells me that I can come in, do whatever I want during work hours, and still get paid.

I will be like, boss, you are joking, right? But for a moment, assume that it is not a joke. Suppose there is a study that pays me and/or my employer. Maybe they install cameras or other monitors for that study and I do not care. Then what? Maybe I would work on the same project, or maybe I would not. Regardless, I would still program. Would I play video games the whole day because I could? No, thank you, that would be boring.

Scenario 3: I have become crazy rich (e.g. won a lottery jackpot).

Let’s be honest. Becoming crazy rich opens up a lot of opportunity for people, and I do not think I would pass on those opportunities. Seeing that starting a company would be much easier if I had a lot of my money to kickstart it, this might be what I would be doing. But even if I were this rich founder of a tech company and had to attend to a lot of meetings, management, and public relations tasks, I cannot imagine having only these tasks in my work life. I would still find time here and there to program.

See, programming (especially contributing to positive changes via programming) is that important to me. It is my passion, and I would throw myself behind this cause even if I do not have to.

Kai Chan

Written by

Kai Chan

Changing the world that talks too much, one piece of writing at a time. Leading the leaders, when they can lead and when they cannot.

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