Ideas, research and everything in between. A garden.
17 Mile Drive. Carmel, California, USA. June 2024. Just over 3 months ago, on March 31, 2024, I left my role as co-founder of Opareta. In managing the transition, there was a need to communicate this in a way that reassured both internal and external stakeholders of the company’s continued potential. With our team, I shared the following letter: Dear Opareta Team, I write today to inform you that…
Another outstanding book recommendation from my great friend and now co-founder, Mike Schwartz . In this early exploration of magical realism, Amos Tutuola taunts and cajoles in a phantasmagorical fever dream that dares you to hang onto your sensibilities. While loquacious, he displays a staggering degree of self awareness in how he counters the panoply of wild folktales with a modicum of sanity.…
I quite enjoy long-form reading and I made a resolution to return to it at the start of 2021. While I did not read too many, I learned so much from these books and I hope that they will make for useful recommendations or distractions. Here they are in chronological order. Certain to Win: The Strategy of John Boyd, Applied to Business How might a navy pilot’s strategy and decision framework help…
Last month, in the midst of the second wave of Covid-19 infections in Uganda, I came across torrents of sad news from deaths and the hardships of the national lockdown. I thought about how to help people and communities in need during this time. And an old idea came to mind. What is Akabbo? Akabbo was the very first online crowdfunding platform in Uganda when it launched back in November 2014. It…
In The Power of Micro Money Transfers , Arunjay not only educates us about remittances but also highlights the immense possibilities that they can play in building more inclusive credit, savings and insurance products for the unbanked and underbanked. He deploys a variety of examples from around the globe to showcase potential opportunities and tease out how new players might add value for both…
Following the murder of George Floyd, I found myself searching to better understand race in America. I needed to know why a police officer found it even conceivable to put his knee, for 8 minutes, on the neck of George Floyd. I imagine that it is not customary practice for police officers to do this in the USA but I still needed to know why a civil servant thought that they might get away with…
Over the last four months, I have been working on a side project on nights and weekends. For a while is was all fun and games. Everything was alright until the realization that the speculative launch date I’d set for myself was way closer than anticipated. Suddenly, the tide has changed. The project no longer feels like a gimmick and seems to have taken on a life of its own. It demands time and…
I recently came across a short video that Don Norman did for the NN Group regarding the principles of human-centered design. He distills his ideas so simply and concretely that I was not sure if I understood him or was just playing along with it. The finesse with which he does demonstrates his understanding of design principles in a way that anyone can understand. Here are the lessons I learned.…
I only read 8 books in 2017. Way less that I had planned. I could blame it on a busy schedule, or reading tons of Medium articles and newsletter content but I know that it was all my fault that I read so little. That said, I thought to share the reviews I wrote immediately after I read each book. The Guest Cat - Takashi Hiraide I let 3 weeks pass while reading this book for the simple reason that…
So you’ve taken quite some time to build your Progressive Web App (PWA) and it is now time to deploy it. Where to start?! I am going to share the simplest method I have come across to get this done. The key platforms that we shall use for this specific process are Firebase and CircleCI. Okay, let’s get started. Setup Firebase First, you need to sign up for Firebase . Once that is done, create a…