Tell us about your journey so far, what keeps you moving forward, and why you are passionate about building things! (1500 chars)
Over this past year, I have spent over 800 hours working on 2 mobile apps: Exo and Orbit, and 400+ hours creating 25+ videos (while being a ft student & intern) Building in the consumer social space is very tough but I am determined to succeed. This is the impact that I love to create on this world: Empowering people to reach their full potential through:
- Helping them grow their social skills and have more confidence in themselves. But that takes a lot of effort and time. But it’s all about having a growth mindset. Which is what self-improvement and my YouTube videos are all about: https://youtube.com/@ramimaalouf
- Helping them maintain & grow their friendships/relationsips. This is why I’m building Exo: https://getexo.vercel.app
- Helping people find the perfect person to meet up with in whatever context. We’re building somewhat of a 4th dimension to the world where you bump into ppl who can transform ur life. This is Orbit: https://youtu.be/QI8HgFye-m0 (b4 pivot) Four months in, we pivoted after hitting major flaws, costing us hundreds of hours in refactoring. That experience, plus books like That Will Never Work taught me a big lesson: Don’t build things no one asked for Now I focus on validating ideas early and often and focus on growing a community of people who deeply care about what I’m building I’m a true believer that bonding and connecting with people is the most important aspect of life. That’s what life is all about in my opinion. This is what fuels my purpose
Submit a link to a one-minute video pitching your project. Tell us about it and what stage are you at now
Submit a public link supporting your project
https://www.linkedin.com/company/getorbitapp
Using methods of forecasting, to the best of your approximations, what is the hacker acceptance rate at Hack the North? [800 characters max.]
So it’s hard to say a very small range because I got accepted into all previous 4 hack the norths. My first two applications weren’t that impressive, but you guys took a chance on me. I believe that it is declining year by year because there are more computer science students every year, but the venue can’t really get bigger. The 2020 one, since online, is probably the highest with an acceptance rate over 50%
15-25% If I had to specify a number, it’s 22
By the year 2030, what do you think will be one commonly accepted idea society will reject? [800 characters max.]
This made me think of the time where I went to Germany for an exchange program over the summer. One notable interaction I had with someone there was the fact that people, despite growing up with parents who drank a lot without really thinking of it as a problem, are avoiding and not drinking/getting drunk. I really hope this trend continues to grow, and also for other things like doomscrolling, Porn, etc… People are starting to become more aware of how harmful these are. But technology is catching up
AI effect: it is no longer going to be “accepted” if you to stay stagnant in terms of learning. Constant change and growth will be the norm. people would no longer have the patience to do boring/repetitive tasks because in five years, a lot of these things will be automated