[Hack&Lube]

I just did my challenge.

I've seen a lot of backlash against this lately and it's disheartening. Why do people always have to tear down charitable causes instead of doing something positive? Tons of social media posts from people criticizing this or even articles in MacLeans saying that this is a bad cause to get behind. The haters are irritating/narrow-minded. I'm a very cynical person and I have no doubt that many great causes are being ignored while others are getting adopted by the masses. I have no delusions about the efficiency (or lack thereof) of charities in terms of how many dollars actually go towards the specific cause. That's unavoidable and thankfully we do we have systems, auditors, journalists, social media, etc. in place to hold those charities accountable but they need to offer solutions and not just criticize.

People need to be pragmatic instead of hating on people by laying blame and aspersions on the compromised ideals and motivations of the few. They should rather focus on the positive actions and net results of the many. I think we have to be practical and consider that in terms of getting people to talk, in terms of raising awareness, and in terms of fundraising; the net effect is overwhelmingly positive. This campaign has taken a debilitating disease, a somber subject - and has injected a lot of joy and fun into getting people involved.

I hope that this can serve as a watershed event for kick-starting viral campaigns for other causes. For that reason alone, I think this is a great thing and there is no need to cast aspersions on people's motivations or to categorize this as less-important as seems to be a trend lately. Research into one area often cascades into others. The impact is more than simple dollars. The real impact is proving that viral and social media campaigns can mobilize millions of people worldwide toward a common cause if you engage everyone in a positive way.

This challenge has done that and laid down a model that works. If you challenge somebody to something, often that person cannot or will not back down. Offer them a structure to easily live up to the challenge, or rise above it and most people will do it. It's even better that it's fun and uplifting and gets people to think creatively. I hope that this model starts to be applied to other causes before the effect suffers from too much apathy.