I'm not a nerd.

I have many people who used to call me that. I never particularly liked that phrase because in my minds nerds aren't exactly cool. They are far from that. Anyways, I was someone who was fond of computers from as long as I can remember and I can spend hours days in solitude if I have a good computer and a reliable internet connection. So, anyways, today's story is about a little project I was doing and the results of it.

You have 2 Days. 

There are two types of people who don't like hearing that statement. The first is a person who owes a million dollars. And the second is someone at a hackathon (a code competition). So, I was at my very first hackathon and we were tasked with coming up with a solution to a problem. 

Instead of hiring experts who cost millions, smart companies cleverly wrap their operational challenges in a contest and invite smart young people to come up with solutions.

The best solution which addresses their challenges is then funded and just like that, they are able to come up with good solutions to their problems without spending a fortune. Plus, they get good ideas to steal!

So, I was at the hackathon and we were part of a team which was coming up with an innovative solution to the problem at hand.

To cut the long story short, we didn't win and felt cheated. Despite this, I never forgot how amazing that experience was - being part of a team that created an application in less than 3 days and actually made it work. I told myself that I would one day learn this magical art of making mobile apps (that actually work).

I found myself in another hackathon in which we had to come up with a mobile application which does cool stuff. Well, I bet you can guess how that ended.

One positive outcome that I got was a free course by a lady called Angela Yu. I am eternally grateful to the Angels at The @ Company for that life changing course they gave us. After much work, I managed to finish the course. 

It was really tempting to get into what is termed as tutorial hell. This is when you keep on doing tutorial after tutorial after tutorial with no end in sight. I decided that since I had actually learnt all the critical skills - How to make mobile apps using Flutter and Dart, it was time to make a product. A real product.

And that is how -->Kariba--Guide<-- came to life. (I put those weird symbols for SEO reasons. I want another site of mine to rank #1 for this keyword)

This is a simple mobile application that is designed to help tourists who visit a little Zimbabwean town called Kariba to get around and find fun activities to do. It is a labour of love and I hope you will find it. 

When is -->Kariba--Guide<-- being launched?

When the tortoises at Google finally approve the app and allow it to be deployed to the Google App Store. I don't understand why the process is unbelievably slow. I'll keep you updated. 

Am I a millionaire?

Well, it doesn't work that way. You don't just make an app and become instantly wealthy - but it would be super cool if it did work out that way.

In fact, my mobile app course teacher, Angela, told a story about a guy who made an app with a diamond picture and text above it which read "I am rich." The genius launched it to the Apple App Store. It literally did nothing except show the diamond and that affirmation. He sold it for the highest price available at the time - 999.99 US dollars. 

People actually bought it.

Yes. Real people who breathe oxygen like you and me. Eight of them. I can only imagine the shock on their spouse's faces after they discovered what their partner spent a grand on.

Well, that brings us to the end of the blogpost. I can't wait to share the link with you guys once the -->Kariba--Guide<-- app is live on the Google Play Store.

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See you next week Wednesday!