Effective altruist, Louie Helm, delves into the research to understand the deeper effects that poker has on society, and covers his findings in a three-part series on the Raising for Effective Giving blog.

There are times in your life when the whole world passes you by like a cloud in the sky. You wake up, brush your teeth, wash your face, head to work, do your thing, come home, have a bath, and sit down in front of the idiot box for your night of entertainment before doing it all again.

At times like these you aren’t really thinking. You’re on autopilot. You have a sense of what society demands of you. It has been hammered into your brain by your parents, schoolteachers and now your boss. The idea of whether you are having a positive effect on society never floats into your mind. It’s up there with that cloud I spoke about.

I have found that as I age, my impact on society becomes more important to me. I guess you could say that I have woken up. I’m not sure what the trigger was. Is it mortality creeping up on me? The need to make an impact before I leave this world, or to squeeze in everything that’s important to me in the time remaining?