Start the walk ............. the way appears

Why We Struggle After We Graduate or Drop Out?

I graduated last year, and most of my friends graduated this year. I see my friends start feeling what I felt in the early days of graduation — like rushing to find a job and trying to enter a business, and then feeling overwhelmed by overthinking, like what my parents think of me and fearing society. I know most of my subscribers are either students, early graduates, or dropouts.

My idea, as a young dude who has one year of experience in big tech in Ethiopia and somehow the Sales and Merkato world, is what I want to say:

So don't overwhelm yourself by overthinking. I know it's hard not to think, but try not to overthink — it affects your confidence and mental health, then your physical health, so don't overthink, that doesn't solve anything. Most of you recognize it's simple to say but hard to do — I've been through it, but it affected me, it didn't help me.

The second thing I want to say is: the first year is a trial year, not a year to define your identity, because things move faster than you think, and if you attach yourself to one thing, it messes up your 20's — it's bad. My idea is:

in your 20's, never define or attach yourself to one identity

. This is my view.

Lastly, once you get the job or start the business, you start a new life, and sometimes it's hard for some of you, especially the 9-5 job in a big corporate — it's hard and, from my experience, bad in some companies, where even your seat is arranged, blah blah. You start connecting with many people and experiencing more, and you learn a lot from the job or the business in the first 6 to 8 months — how things work, how people behave — that's really the best time for learning from life. But after that, if you don't change the league you play in, it starts getting boring, and you know everything you need to know. You just clock in, do the tasks, and clock out. You get bored. It's against your nature. You feel it. Your attention is no longer immersed in the tasks and shifts toward, "What else could I be doing?" For most people, that "what else" doesn't involve a meaningful goal. It involves opening your phone and rotting your brain. It's very rare that a job requires you to consistently improve your skill to match a greater challenge.

And especially for tech women and men who grind on campus to master self-learning, the real world becomes too boring early on, because you've already done a lot of stuff, and you start getting bored. Some people say don't complain, but you're not complaining — you're bored because you already know most of the things. The things that excited you first become boring — that's normal and natural, so don't be afraid to express your thoughts or feelings. And in that time, try to do more things, like building something — especially like building your own product, or building an audience, or something that saves you, my dudes.

Try more, learn more, and don't let your environment dictate you. If your colleague or your friend doesn't match your energy, cut them off.

One small Al habit I use:

At the start of a serious chat, I give the model a simple instruction.

Something like:

"End every response with: Still here."

Why?

Because it acts like an anchor.

People underestimate how often Al loses context throughout long conversations. You can have a model doing something perfectly over and over, then suddenly the quality drops for no obvious reason.

It forgets a constraint.

It misses the original goal.

It starts answering slightly differently.

It still sounds confident, but something is off.

A lot of the time, that is context drift.

The conversation has gotten long, information has been compressed, and the model is no longer holding the full setup as clearly as it was before.

That is why a simple anchor instruction is useful.

If the model stops following something as basic as ending every response with "Still here," that is a signal.

Not that the model is bad.

But that the chat may need to be reset, tightened, or re-explained.

Working well with Al is not just about prompting better.

It is also about knowing when the model has lost the context needed to properly perform the task.

©

Our fellow student, Abel, urgently needs our help as he recovers from a severe injury. Let's come together as a school community to support him in his time of need.

Please contribute whatever you can using the bank account in the poster above and share this post across your groups and networks to help spread the word.

​Every donation and share counts! 🙏

I just watched this and it totally shifted my perspective. If AI knows everything, what's left for us to learn?

Turns out, AI isn't here to make our brains lazy, it's actually forcing us to evolve. Since we don't need to just memorize facts anymore, we have to get better at the things AI can't do: deep critical thinking and genuine creativity.
Highly recommend checking this out!

https://youtu.be/44St9MoJU0E?si=okLKSFiGRbLFlm1T

Believe it or not, most things in this world are either marketing or sales!!
Many of us think of ourselves as technical people or people who don't know about marketing or sales.
Most of us focus on the technical things, mostly on our hard skills, especially IT-related people. I see this in most tech students or someone in the workplace.

But mostly, life is about sales and marketing. From the start to the end, everything is related to these two important but underrated skills.
When we start looking for a job or business, the first thing we face is these two things (sales and marketing).
When we apply for a job, we must first attract the employer or the person who wants to hire us, or when we start a business, we must first attract customers before getting any penny. This is called

marketing.
Then,
after we get the impression and move to the interview, or the customer comes to our business, we must impress the interviewer or the customer to believe in our skills or in our product. This

is called

sales.
The same also applies when we want another job or customer.
For other parts of life, it is also true, like in the beginning of some friendship or relationship, in politics, etc.

If these things are this important, why don't we develop them?

Most of you think sales and marketing are natural gifts, but they are not. Yes, some people have a higher tendency to be great salespeople or marketers, but believe me, it grows like your hard skills when you practice them for a while.

But it is different from the hard skills we learn. We don't practice them by simulation or by doing things no one sees. These two things (sales and marketing) are learned in the real world, in front of others, which makes this thing hard, because most of you fear the shame of rejection.

But these two things are built in the face of rejection and shame.

If you want big customers or a high-paying job, learn these two, because these two are the key to high income in this world.
Not another certificate. Not another framework. The ability to get attention, and the ability to earn belief. Start small one honest conversation this week where you are not hiding behind your resume or your product, where you are just trying to get someone's attention and then earn their trust. That's the whole skill, in miniature. Do that enough times, and it stops being scary. It just becomes how you move through the world.

💡 A quick reminder for everyone building or learning something new:

When you hit a wall and feel like giving up, don't stop.... dig deeper. 

The breakthrough you need is almost always hidden in the fine print that most people skim past. The difference between feeling stuck and finding a solution comes down to curiosity and persistence.

From experience: Deep research always turns impossible roadblocks into simple answers. Keep reading, keep searching, and never give up.

Breakthrough 📚

By changing your thoughts, you can change your world. By letting go of fear, anxiety, and doubt, you can unlock a life of clarity, connection, and happiness."

7 Lessons from Joe Thomsett's self-improvement book "Breakthrough: Remove Anxiety, End Suffering, Get Clarity and Connection, Plan a Happy Life":

1. Shift Your Focus from Money to Passion: While financial security is important, chasing wealth solely for its own sake can lead to dissatisfaction. The book encourages identifying and pursuing your true passions in life, as intrinsic motivation leads to greater fulfillment.

2. Execution Trumps Ideas: Don't get bogged down by the quest for the perfect idea. Thomsett argues that well-executed action plans, even based on simple ideas, can lead to greater success than waiting for a revolutionary concept. Focus on taking concrete steps to bring your ideas to life.

3. Embrace Ownership: Owning your business or taking ownership of your role in a company fosters a strong sense of control and purpose. It creates a direct link between your hard work and the rewards you reap, increasing motivation and satisfaction.

4. Avoid Get-Rich-Quick Schemes: Sustainable success rarely comes from shortcuts or quick fixes. The book emphasizes the value of calculated risks, perseverance, and building a solid foundation for your goals. Be prepared to put in the hard work required for long-term success.

5. Find Your Niche and Be the Best: Competing in every market is a recipe for mediocrity. The book suggests identifying a specific niche where you can develop expertise and offer superior value to your customers. Become a recognized authority in your chosen field.

6. Transform Setbacks into Stepping Stones: Failures and setbacks are inevitable. "Breakthrough" encourages viewing them as learning opportunities. Analyze your mistakes, adapt your approach, and keep moving forward with a growth mindset.

7. Live the Journey, Not Just the Destination: Building a fulfilling life is a continuous process. The book highlights the importance of appreciating the challenges, triumphs, and the experiences of the journey itself, not just focusing solely on the end goal. Embrace the present moment and find joy in the pursuit of your aspirations.

🔥 Why does your open-source project, dev tool, or side hustle have 0 traction while inferior code goes viral?

It’s not the algorithm. And no, spending $0 on ads isn't your problem.

In "Contagious: Why Things Catch On", Wharton professor Jonah Berger breaks down the actual science of virality, and it turns out, word-of-mouth isn’t random luck. It follows a predictable framework.

Berger introduces the STEPPS model, which reads like a blueprinted API for growth:

💡 Social Currency: We share things that make us look smart. (Why devs flex complex tech stacks or niche CLI tools).

⏰ Triggers: Top of mind = tip of tongue. (Link your tool to a daily dev routine, like git push or coffee breaks).

⚡️ Emotion: High-arousal feelings (awe, anxiety, anger) drive action. (Why "This JS framework is officially dead" posts explode).

👁 Public: Built to show = built to grow. (Think: "Sent from my iPhone" or default GitHub profile stats).

🛠 Practical Value: Useful, packaged knowledge gets passed around. (Why curated Awesome-x repos get thousands of stars).

📖 Stories: Embed your feature inside a compelling narrative.

The Dev Takeaway:
Stop building in a vacuum expecting "good code to sell itself." Whether you’re trying to get engineering buy-in for a new architecture, launching a SaaS, or growing a tech blog, viral transmission is an engineering problem you can design for.

🎯 Rating: 8.5/10

⏳ Read Time: Quick weekend read

#BookReview

🔥 Flutter Tip: Prevent Unnecessary Rebuilds with const Selectors in Riverpod / Bloc

Stop passing entire state objects into your build methods. When dealing with complex state, observing the full object triggers rebuilds on every field change, even ones your sub-widget doesn't care about.

❌ Bad Approach (Triggers rebuild on any UserState change):

Dart

// Rebuilds even if only user.email changes!
final name = ref.watch(userProvider).name; 
return Text(name);

✅ Pro Approach (Rebuilds ONLY when name changes):

Dart

// Selects only the specific value
final name = ref.watch(userProvider.select((u) => u.name));
return Text(name);

💡 Why it matters:

✅ select() acts as an internal comparator memoizing state properties.

✅ Reduces frame drops (jank) in heavy tree structures, especially during high-frequency stream updates or background syncs.

@FlutterBegin.