Exciting news! The era of endless plotting and waiting for a divine intervention, say, like a React Native developer sent from above, has ended. Now the time of endless software tinkering has begun! These latest 14-hour coding marathons have been exhausting, pushing me to limits I've never faced before. Yet, being constantly surrounded by individuals who wear their phones like gloves with discontent, and observing our world grapple with the unprecedented pace of god-like technological change—both of these refuel my devotion every day. The reason I keep going relentlessly: to accelerate the advent of a humane technology future. After a year of teaching myself to code, I'm thrilled to say some of it is starting to pay off! You can follow my many learnings in the pictures below, capturing moments from my journey. Though a long road lies ahead, I'm excited to share that the first demo of Telos Alpha is now live on TestFlight and waiting for you in your email.

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Setting the right expectations here is critical: no one holds a higher bar for user-friendly UI, unique utility, and delightful experiences than I do-yet I will not shy away from early constructive reflections. As you explore the new app and website, keep in mind we're in an early development phase: the app isn't a functional tool yet, but a non-viable prototype laying the groundwork for continuous iteration. I invite you to spend just 10 minutes checking out the website and experiencing what will become Telos Alpha.

Aspirationally, Telos Alpha app is designed to empower students under the highest academic pressure at MIT and Harvard by amplifying signal and silencing noise. It seamlessly integrates study events, tasks, and focus sessions into one app to drive excellence: adaptively blocking distracting notifications and apps, importing Classes and Deadlines, securing periods of undivided attention Sessions, and much more to come! Ultimately, it aims to be the exclusive study tool every student on campus relies on—being both free-of-charge-and-ads.

Back to reality: this prototype establishes the basics with events and todos in a unified grid called Foresight. It's not an MVP—it is, again, not ‘viable' (yet!), lacking support for real user events or the robust backend for fluid task management. That said, below are screen captures highlighting working UI interactions, alongside pictures of my journey-setting up databases, navigating App Store Connect, and coding relentlessly in React Native. Dive in, get a spark of excitement, and share any constructive ideas that arise. But first:

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List of things that DON'T help

• Social features are coming later; let's put a pin on those opportunities for now.
• Focus disabeling now happens by pressing a event again; later you will be able to press anything, of course.
• Unfortunately inserting new todo's does no yet work, but you can see the beginning of the availability-system when you tap on a time and can play with the two statically positioned (at ~4 PM).
• When the app opens it takes a bit of time. Why? Because I am testing loading in all this dummy data form the servers! This will be invisibly later.
• Yes, dragging does not work. Yes, changing duration does not work. Opening Moments does not work. YET!!!
• The app has not been tested on any device except my own iPhone 14, so scaling issues will be addressed later on.

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List of things that DO help

• Specific problems you experienced in the past that you would love to see addressed in an app in this particular space.
• Identifying ambiguous elements that later on students might find them also wondering.

The TestFlight Link should be in your email—feel free to text me otherwise!

To know what the current prototype is capable of today, please Open-Me!

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Next Steps

Living in Asia has been incredible. Honestly, I haven't stepped into a kitchen in over three months! The people here are remarkably kind: I wish the West would take note. Lastly, I love the peace of the climate and nature. More importantly, living here has kept me afloat, with monthly expenses under $600. With significant progress made and a downloadable app that's only improving, Telos is now in a markedly better position. De-risking the venture by climbing ever further up The Ladder of Proof. I plan to return to Boston within 1-2.5 months to capitalize on the academic year momentum. With MIT students returning to campus on August 20th for about 100 days is roughly my window of opportunity for 2025. I'll reconnect with the people I had the pleasure of meeting last time, share the Beta app with MIT/Harvard student waiting list from last year and starting humbly to build real value and real user retention, one person at a time, before pursuing American venture capital funding.

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Want to read the article about "A New Regret for a New generation" Press-Me-Instead

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P.s Just zoom in with your fingers or mouse! Pics are sharp enough and I did not have time to build a fullscreen-show module.

Again, first checkout what to play with in the prototype by checking the screen captures here.

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All the best, Meritis