Be The Architect Of Your Dream App

Tirole's Nobel Lecture

Jean Tirole's 2014 Nobel Economics Prize lecture is masterful: clear; concise; simple, but not simplistic. He starts at 3:45:

Ikejemba, we salute you

Chinua Achebe, Michael Thelwell, students and several guests discuss Things Fall Apart in this session of a Brown University undergraduate seminar course:

AFRI1060, "African Literature: Chinua Achebe"

Thelwell is a gifted teacher, who is evidently deeply knowledgeable and passionate about Achebe's work. He leavens the proceedings with mischievous wit. Achebe makes his appearance at 85:45 and the two men greet each other by the honorific Igbo names they bestowed on each other: Achebe is Ikejemba ("The power that protects the people") and Thelwell is Ekwueme ("He who does what he says he will do"). There are some gems here. For instance, in response to Charlie Cobb's question (at 121:39) about his ruptured relationship with Aya Kwei Armah, Achebe notes: "We are not enemies, but we don't find time to get together." Vintage Achebe.

Something Ventured

Something Ventured (2011) tells the story of the rise of the venture capital industry in the United States. It's a very human story, and an utterly compelling and fascinating one. You can watch it for free on Hulu:

Komla Dumor (1972-2014): Telling the African Story

Notes and Neurons

Bobby McFerrin demonstrating the intuitive power of the pentatonic scale at the World Science Festival 2009:

J. Robert Oppenheimer: His life and his physics

Reading:

Cloaks and Medals

Professor Sir John Pendry, the physicist behind the concept of "invisibility cloaking", has been awarded the Institute of Physics's 2013 Isaac Newton Medal.

Good African

The inspirational story of how Andrew Rugasira and his partners built the Good African Coffee company in Uganda.

Rushdie on Moral Courage

Sir Salman Rushdie on moral courage.

Kirsten on Coaching

Cricket coach Gary Kirsten on his philosophy of coaching.

How to Write About Africa

How to Write About Africa by Binyavanga Wainaina

Soyinkan Skewering

There are put-downs and then there are Soyinkan skewerings:

The saddest part for me was that this work was bound to give joy to sterile literary aspirants like Adewale Maja-Pearce, whose self-published book – self-respecting publishers having rejected his trash – sought to create a “tragedy” out of the relationships among the earlier named “pioneer quartet” and, with meanness aforethought, rubbish them all – [Wole Soyinka] especially. Chinua [Achebe] got off the lightest. A compendium of outright impudent lies, fish market gossip, unanchored attributions, trendy drivel and name dropping, this is a ghetto tract that tries to pass itself up as a product of research, and has actually succeeded in fooling at least one respectable scholar. For this reason alone, there will be more said, in another place, on that hatchet mission of an inept hustler.

Leaving aside the accuracy or propriety (or otherwise) of Soyinka's comments, the words with which he makes them are undoubtedly entertaining. They also illustrate his uniquely dense, verbose, prolix -- and highly effective -- style. This is interesting because the general advice to avoid bombastic language is good advice. Soyinka is one of the very few writers who has somehow managed to make a virtue of verbosity.

The Wal-Mart Way

Reading The Wal-Mart Way: The Inside Story of the Success of the World's Largest Company by Don Soderquist:

The Dragon Meisteress

How To Train Your Dragon

Reading (to the boys at bedtime):

Wonderful book. Beautifully written and quirkily illustrated by Cressida Cowell, the author. It's the first in the recorded adventures of one Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, an unlikely Viking hero. It routinely has the boys laughing out loud. And brings out a few smiles and chuckles in the reader too (me). The best thing I can say about it is: thank God there are eight more books in the series!

Authentic Leadership

Reading:

True Freedom

We don't begin to know what [true] freedom is until we come to a place in our lives where we have no need to impress anybody. - Joyce Meyer

Investing in African Prosperity

The Best

There's a popular saying in the Bemba language: "Inshimbi ni nshimbi".

It defies adequate translation into English -- it literally means "metal is metal".

Its intended meaning, though, is that, sometimes, one must simply acknowledge the undeniable facts. Metal is metal, and nothing else.

It's painful to say this as an Arsenal fan, but not as an all-round football fan: it is an undeniable fact that Sir Alex Ferguson, who today stepped down as Manager of Manchester United, is quite simply the best football manager who has ever lived. His record at Manchester United alone speaks for itself: one Club World Cup title; two European Champions League titles; thirteen English Premier League titles; five English FA Cup titles. Not to mention many other less well known trophies. Indeed, Sir Alex Ferguson's greatness transcends even football itself. Judged on the basis of delivery of consistent results over time using finite resources, Sir Alex Ferguson is undoubtedly one of the greatest managers, of any kind, who has ever lived. Inshimbi ni nshimbi, Metal is metal.