Margaret Dongfang

Aim. Shoot. Adjust. Repeat. That’s startup life. Excited to share that Sandbook has joined the TikTok x Blossom SME Empowerment Program. Grateful to build alongside sharp founders — all aiming at moving targets, all still pulling the trigger. @tiktok_us @BlossomAccel

Ever since I arrived in Saudi, my reading palette didn’t get the memo — it became the memo. Hemingway, Rumi, Woolf… all now in Saudi Green. ألوان قراءتي أصبحت تنطق بلون الأرض التي أحببتها

This week we ran a workshop with the amazing teachers at @Ajialunaedu. They explored our AI game engine — not as straightforward as ChatGPT, but it learns with you. And where AI stumbles? That’s where we stretch its creative edge. 📸 Here’s a glimpse of what they built 👇

A proud milestone 🚀 Kids now spend over an hour per session on Sandbook—not because they have to, but because they want to. Watching them own the stage today—confidently presenting and asking “Any questions?” with a grin—was everything. Big shoutout to @sekintschools 🧡

Incredible energy at the @SchoolexpoSa in Riyadh 🇸🇦 Met dozens of top schools — visionary educators ready to rewire learning. @SchoolsRiyadh @sekintschools @EtonHouseGroup With Sandbook, knowledge isn’t crammed. It’s hacked. Through play. Through joy. Through curiosity.

If you haven’t been to the Islamic Biennale in Jeddah, I really recommend it. One line from the Qur’an stayed with me: “all that is in between.” Maybe it’s not just about the heavens and the earth, or beginning and end. Maybe it’s about the space where we grow. The becoming.

Always funny when people say, kids are too young to understand that. Give them the right words, the right story—watch them get it. BBC’s little philosophy animations are such a gem. Who am I? What is fair? Our place in nature? All in a way kids just... get. Highly recommend.

Spent my 28th on Margaret Island, where the Danube flows and courage lingers—like the craftsman of the Chain Bridge, daring to stake everything on his work. Here’s to a new year, and a life as bold as ever.

Learned a Saudi proverb today: ‘مالك الا ولد يقرا’—‘You’ll get back a child who can read.’ It speaks volumes about the Saudi preference for end-to-end solutions: trust, completion, and care are at the core of this approach. Truly an insightful cultural perspective.

Imagine further down the pipeline: law students immersed in multimedia case studies. My personal favorite? With the suspenseful beats of Agatha Christie in the background, I can speed through court material 10x faster, haha. 🎧📚

Every day here in Saudi, I’m bathed in “Mashallah” 😂

Outside the stadium where #CristianoRonaldo played, these ladies asked if I had a boyfriend. When I said no, they told me to let him know he’s incredibly lucky when I do. I don’t think I even have this level of expressiveness - welcome to a modern Saudi!

@MattVidPro The struggles of calculating forces and trajectories in physics class are now a thing of the past. I envy students of the future...

Open AI o1 just made me a nice clean physics environment in python. I'm no coder but this is SO COOL!

@fluxtheorist Talking to ‘literature lovers’ who only mention Siddhartha says it all. one’s real depths lie in those lesser-known works. Naming classics is easy, but internalizing their essence? No prompted chat with GPT can ‘crash course’ that. You’ve got to read the hardcover, dust and all.

Funnily enough this attitude explains his mediocrity. If skill acquisition is only a 2 week process and there are no experts, you’re going to have surface level mechanics and intuition which you can’t supplement with expert advice, since you don’t believe it in the first place.

Witnessing my digital birth at GAIN Summit, stroke by stroke. Call it minimalism that's drained expressionism's palette dry. Impressively, a blend of multiple LoRAs, hijab-compatible :) AI artists with humanity at the core. #AIArt #GAINSummit #DigitalExpressionism #TechMeetsArt