The OrtegaVerse: My personal collection of ideas, models, concepts, beautiful theorems, links, amazing talks, videos. The thread is an attempt to integrate those things in one place. Or perhaps also monitor what I am consuming. Feel free to indulge, it will keep growing:

"The gift is also a curse..."

Let me add to the prophecy: In the next 10 years, Kenya and Uganda will have two options: 1. More integration - form the nation of Kenganda 2. Go to war over the silk road and have one country assert clear dominance over the other. It's Sparta (Uganda) versus Athens (Kenya).

If you have an idea, roll out the dumb version of that idea, it will probably outperform the smart/complex version of the same idea. Challenge with most smart people, they don't know how to dumb down beautifully, with aura. They get frustrated as dumb people get all credit.

The most important quote from this scene - "It wasn't brains that brought me here..." Tuld is talking about a rare kind of wisdom born of the trenches. One where you've died before and come back to life. It's only honed through crisis.

Okot p'Bitek is to Uganda what Homer is to the Greeks. Arguments to the contrary are rounding errors.

I knew my lecturer was cool, when for one of our Ethics tests, we were required to write a reflective paper on this movie. I ought to watch 'Big Short' to see if it matches up.

Go to Museveni, pitch an idea of a 'Ugandan Aura Farm'. Watch him ask questions about whether Aura is an agricultural product, tell him - idea has ability to employ 1 million Gen-Zs. Get State Comptroller to release money. Start launching aura farms across country. Who's in?

The worst betrayal is the betrayal of the self. Snakes should bite, lions should roar, the great should pursue greatness. Betrayal of the self is death by a thousand cuts.

Two political routes are emerging in East Africa: 1. Raila Way: Handshakes, compromise, finding common ground. 2. Besigye Way: No compromise, no handshake, no negotiation. Decide on a route, stick to it all the way. Our lives are too short to know which way is superior.

Anna Karenina is the greatest novel ever written. Only Tolstoy could have written a character like 'Karenina'. It's one of those things where you say, the world would have been different had such a character not been written. And I hated Tolstoy because he didn't redeem Karenina.

And they are 'idiots' because it's stupid to give in to your emotions, to not be strategic in life, to not see what you can get from everyone you meet, to play life with open cards. Dostoevsky is the greatest writer because he had the ability to characterize the psyche.

Many have argued that Dostoevsky's characters represented this ongoing battle between Intellect, Will, and Emotion. And for Dostoevsky, emotion is the highest wisdom. Only those who can love, feel, care know what it means to be alive, and why we're alive.

The heroes in Dostoevsky's books are the 'idiots', the 'foolish', those who seem to play the game of life without a script. They play with open cards. In Brothers Karamazov, it's Alyosha. In Crime and Punishment, it's Sonia. In the Idiot, it's Prince Myshkin.

BAT, Unilever, & EABL ran the most solid graduate management trainee (GMT) programmes. And with those programmes, also transformed the managerial class in East Africa. They ran them on the principle - "find great talent early on, throw them into the deep end, and fast track..."

The new role of newspapers is to tell me 'What will be' not 'what was' or 'what is'. They've been publishing since the 90s, they can do something with that big data, and spot hidden patterns.

Newspapers can no longer compete for the job of capturing events as they unfold in real time. But they can compete for the predictive job. Can a newspaper spot the patterns and tell me what Uganda will be 3 years from now? Run a column on what post-Museveni Uganda looks like...

Geopolitical risk is the elephant on every CFO's list. We need an East African Risk Institute to predict these kinds of events and alert businesses. Newspapers should also pivot towards this role - future casting.

The Last Generation to speak in cadence. We could add President Duma of Botswana to the list.

And the idea of Nomikai also - "when we're a bit tipsy, then none of us is fooling the other. We break whatever was rehearsed prior..." But it's also a way to test discipline. Because if you drink and spill out your heart, then you're not someone to be trusted. Double-edged.

In Asia, you negotiate the relationship first. The toast is probably the most important aspect of the business negotiation. Can I trust you enough to toast with you? At some Universities, you will drink with your professors in the evenings.