My Utopia: My attempt to save the world (from mobile addiction)

I have been thinking about it all the time: when I sleep, during lectures, while going out with friends. That was the moment I decided my plan for this whole summer.

I finally planned it all out in my head: Must be an innovative idea turning into a great startup. Was I proud of myself? No. Having that big chunk of idea in my head held no value, really. As my childhood idol used to put it:

Great Idea is WORTHLESS without Polished Execution Steve Job

Put it down on paper

I took out my note and started jotting down my idea. That’s a lot of arrows and boxes.

After filling the pages, I looked at it: Just a fancy version of “getting paid for doing the dishes”. Well, not exactly. First of all, this was a mobile device-exclusive offer, sounds like a win-win to kids nowadays. Second of all, this was a video game, not a negotiation between you and your mom on how much should you be paid.

It’s because you play those video games

Mobile devices and video games. If every time my mom blames these two objects for my shortcoming I got a buck, I would have been a millionaire. Undeniably, mobile devices and video games are often viewed nowadays as bad influences. Even I, who was a mobile-addicts, can’t deny the fact after seeing all the kids around gluing their eyes onto the screen and getting less and less reactive, out-going. I felt bad knowing that and seeing beyond such a terrible future filled with digital-contaminated people.

Look away from your phone! You might have missed something important.

Companies develop more and more app to drawing you into your phone. However, not a lot of them actually do something to get you out of it. More importantly, not a lot of them are beneficial.

My Uptopia

Two years ago, I attempted to tackle this problem. I built Knowledge Seed, which is a way for people to learn by playing video games. It was awesome at the time. It looked promising: I even manage to include some fancy scientific gigs (Spacing effect for example). Sadly, I did not push it well enough. After getting dropped at a competition (due to technical issues), I lost my passion for the project.

However, what I did not (and would never) lose on the way was my idea. I determined to help the world with the power of coding. I saw great potential exactly where the root of all the problem was. That harmful technology could be used to fight against its own problems.

If I can make something as good as those video games out there but twice (or a hundred times) as beneficial, I win the game. I decided to do my second attempt: My Utopia.

(Part 2 will be posted soon. And also look out for my Devlogs category, where I write about the development of the app)