Thinking of and working for the well being of the community, even through small efforts, can ripple for decades, perhaps centuries. I’m going to tell you a priceless story about it.

In 1982, the principal of the school I was attending, Colegio Agustiniano Norte, Bogotá, Colombia, read in the news that personal computers were going to revolutionize the world. He did not want the kids in his community to be left behind. Thus, he organized a small fair, sold food and raffle tickets, and raised enough money in 1983 to buy 25 NEC APC computers, 64 kilobytes of memory.

Computer programming in BASIC became mandatory for all students from 5th grade till graduation from high school.  I wrote my first video game in BASIC in 1983 at age 10. It was my final project of the year, and it was not the best in the entire class.

My family was at the very low end of the middle class, flirting with poverty at the end of every month. Back then, a fifty-page magazine called “mi computer”, which was the serialized version of a ten-volume collection, was sold for 175 pesos, or 2 dollars (5 dollars today). It came out every week. I could buy only one, saving cents for months. But when I could finally open my new treasure, sometime in 1984, it changed my world. The second article that week was about artificial intelligence.

Fast forward four decades. I learned more, generated millions in research contracts, and trained dozens of students who are changing the world in their own ways.  I still use BASIC (VB.NET), mostly for nostalgia,  and I work every day with and in artificial intelligence.

Working **for** the community is the best investment of all.