Vision in Byte

At ALX ETHIOPIA

Last night, on my way home, I ended up having one of those unexpected conversations with a ride driver. I usually prefer not to talk during rides. I like the quiet. But he was easy to talk to, so we started talking about work and how he became a mechanic. He told me he dropped out of school when he was in 7th grade. Apparently, he had gotten a very low mark in biology but a very good mark in physics. His biology and physics teachers were friends, and after seeing his grades, one of them basically told him, “You’re a stupid student.” But the physics teacher disagreed. He told his friend, “He’s not stupid. He’s actually very smart. He understands things when he can experiment with them and work with his hands.” Then the biology teacher told him something along the lines of, “Then go learn it. You shouldn’t be here.” He was around 11 years old. And he never went back to school. He started working as a mechanic at a very young age, learned different crafts, earned his own money, and eventually built a life around practical work. What surprised me most wasn't even the story. It was what he said at the end. He said he was grateful to that teacher. I was honestly shocked. Because from the outside, what that teacher did was completely wrong. An 11-year-old child struggling with a subject should not be labelled stupid or pushed out of school. There are children who learn differently, children with learning difficulties, children who need different methods, and children who simply haven't discovered what they're good at yet. And this made me think about our education system. A lot of our schooling rewards remembering information more than actually understanding it. I remember realizing this myself when I was young: if I memorized something well enough, I could get a good grade, and then forget most of it a few weeks later. I don't think that's learning. But there's another part of his story that stayed with me. Something that was meant to put him down ended up pushing him toward something he genuinely loves. The teacher wasn't right for the reason he thought he was right. The method was cruel, and the words were damaging. But somehow, that moment redirected this child's life toward something he turned out to be exceptionally good at. And that's complicated. Sometimes life gives us things that were meant to break us, and somehow we build something beautiful with them. That doesn't make the thing that hurt us good. It just means we can sometimes turn even the things that were weaponized against us into something that belongs to us. His story made me think about how many children we've called “stupid” simply because they weren't good at the things our education system decided were important. And how many of them might actually be brilliant at something we never gave them the chance to discover.

🌼 እንቁጣጣሽ is here! 🇪🇹✨ New year, new memories, new connections! Come celebrate with the ALX community, bring a friend, meet someone new, and enjoy the culture, laughter, and good vibes. 💛 If you are new to ALX, there’ll be an Info Session to help you get to know the community and all it has to offer. 🤍 Dress Code: Any Cultural Outfit (የባህል ልብስ) or Any White Clothing 🗓 Saturday, September 5 | ነሐሴ 30, 2018 ዓ.ም. ⏰ 1:00 PM | ከቀኑ 7:00 ሰዓት ጀምሮ 📍 ALX Tech Hub, Lideta 🎟 Save your spot & bring a friend: https://luma.com/gxiuxtfp #ALXEthiopia #ALXAfrica #EthiopianNewYear #Enkutatash #ALXCommunity #LifeAtALX #ALXFamily #DoHardThings

Meet Our Core Team | Eyerusalem Belay Meet Eyerusalem Belay, our Social Media Lead and, from now on, Co-Lead of ISHUB. Eyerusalem has been the person behind many of the posts, updates, and content that keep ISHUB connected with its community. Her energy, consistency, creativity, and fast execution have played a big role in building our social media presence. Congratulations, Eyerusalem, on your new role! We’re excited to have you lead alongside us and take ISHUB to the next level. Telegram|LinkedIn|YouTube | Tiktok

Meet Our Core Team | Eden Gosaye Meet Eden Gosaye, our former Public Relations & Marketing Lead and, from now on, the Lead of ISHUB. Eden has been a dedicated part of ISHUB, helping us build connections beyond our community through her outstanding communication, networking, and persuasion skills. We are sincerely grateful for her dedication, energy, and contribution to ISHUB. We’re excited to see her lead us into the next chapter. Thank you, Eden, and congratulations on your new role! Telegram|LinkedIn|YouTube | Tiktok

Cohere Labs Open Science Community is launching 'World Models from Scratch', a hands-on technical series led by @nahidalam, co-lead of our Embodied AI group, who is writing an open book on the subject. This 9-session series will follow the book as it is developed. Build along from first principles with runnable code, diagrams, and interactive tools. Starts Sept 3. Certificate for 75%+ attendance. Join our community:https://cohere.com/research/open-science

Happy birthday to me.

Episode 5 is finally here! 🎙️🔥 This time, I sat down with Mohammed Ibrahim a.k.a Doughnut. We talked about ExamBuddy, building AI products from Ethiopia, remote opportunities and the future of software development. this one is packed with knowledge, honest conversations and plenty of laughs 😂 #SoftwareGuyPodcast #EthiopianTech #AI #Programming https://youtu.be/tm3y6rnYyWY

"Hardware used to be just something we learned in class... IDEEZA made it possible." The community showed up for Builder’s Labe even in the tough weather! Bethel Addisu (Women Techmakers Ambassador & event co-organizer) shared her thoughts on why testing products with real users at community events is key to building better tech. She also gave us a peek into her personal project—a companion drone designed to act as a physical "second brain"—and how tools like IDEEZA are breaking down the traditional barriers of hardware development. Don't miss the next session: 🔗 Join the waitlist today: https://www.ideeza.com/waitlist 💬 Join our daily community on Telegram: https://t.me/ideeza_chat

You've built LLM agents that respond to queries—now let's make them stateful. Learn how to use session state to build agents that maintain context, remember preferences & provide personalized experiences—part of the Gemini Enterprise Agent Ready series → goo.gle/4xiqIYg

I’ve been a little quiet here for the past couple of weeks and took some time away from everything. One thing I’ve learned is that grief isn’t always about something coming to an end. Sometimes, you grieve the things that could have been, the things you wish you had done differently, and the things you wish you could still change. I never thought about grief that way before.

What Saturday looked like <33333

A huge thank you to all the mentors who made Builders’ Lab such a great experience. Special thanks to @Frosty_sirens, @XcodeAndChill, @sifendev, @dot_rut, @codeandcoffee1, @software_guy, and @aydus_journal for sharing your knowledge, asking the right questions, and giving our builders genuinely useful feedback. And a special shoutout to @atocodes for the great session on training and products. Also, I have to give credit to @thechillcodinglounge and his friends @bearly_learning, @mo_tries, and @eyudevs. When one of our presenters couldn't make it, these guys hyped him up and pushed him to step in and present WordBucket. That last-minute save was honestly one of my favorite moments of the event. Really grateful to everyone who contributed to making Builders’ Lab what it was.

Was a very lovely day Working on the vlog ☺️ @aydus_journal

ለእህታችን ቻሌንጅ! 10 ብር ለአንድ ሰው ትንሽ ቢመስልም ስንበዛ ግን ከኛ የወጣው 10 ብር ለሌላ ሰው ህይወቱን ማትረፍ ሊሆን ይችላል ከ10 ብር ጀምረን መላክ የምንችለውን እንላክላት... ለእህታችን እንድረስ❤️ CBE - 1000487578828 TeleBirr - 0911179293 Awash Bank - 013471629151800 ሁሉም አካውንት ስም - Rahel Aregay ከላካችሁ በኃላ ኮመንት ላይ ከScreenshot ጀምሮ እስከ ቴክስት መላክ ትችላላችሁ!

Are you building an AI-powered product that solves real life challenges? Now, you can take it further. The UniPods AI Programme in partnership with METI Japan is open to individuals and teams with an MVP or early-stage prototype. Deadline: 23 August https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScOR01JnM7sidAFzl4AE3BEx8l9eG0MNsuIp9v6b_7YOvLUeg/viewform #opportunity

The courses are free, self-paced, and come with a certificate upon completion. Courses: Data Governance in Africa: https://online.atingi.org/course/view.php?id=6617 Citizen Participation in Data Governance: https://online.atingi.org/enrol/index.php?id=6619 Cross-Border Data Flows: https://online.atingi.org/enrol/index.php?id=6616 A useful opportunity for anyone interested in data, technology, digital policy, or responsible data governance. #Opportunity

it's total vibes that Ayidu got hacked and her channel got deleted. Go show her so love by following.

Got hacked and my channel got deleted I was always the "why would they hack me?" girl i think i deserved it 😭 Anyways we keep going :)) @aydus_journal