https://mugambi.co.ke/Creating Opportunity | Technology | Fitnessenhttps://mugambi.co.ke/curiosity-collaboration-creation/https://mugambi.co.ke/curiosity-collaboration-creation/Wed, 06 Mar 2024 18:07:01 +0300<p>My time at CSquared concluded last month, marked by a wealth of valuable experiences and meaningful relationships fostered. I extend my sincere gratitude to the Warriors and the broader CSquared community for the enriching journey and enduring memories cultivated over the past 20 months.</p><p>I’m currently thinking through a series of questions; from a long term perspective, what I should work on next - what problems and opportunities I should explore, and who I should work with - which is probably the most important!. Having worked for quite some time mostly in the tech world, and across different roles and organizations, this is surprisingly hard for me to do – especially as I’m one with a diverse set of skills and interests. My hope is that embracing curiosity and learning will help me, and others via this post at a similar juncture in their professional life.</p>https://mugambi.co.ke/frugality-ftw/https://mugambi.co.ke/frugality-ftw/Sat, 01 Apr 2023 11:10:10 +0300Being frugal is often associated with being cheap or living a deprived lifestyle. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, being frugal is a valuable skill that can help one save money, make the most of resources, and live a fulfilling life on a budget. https://mugambi.co.ke/why-everything-about-startups-and-business-is-about-risk/https://mugambi.co.ke/why-everything-about-startups-and-business-is-about-risk/Thu, 23 Feb 2023 08:42:19 +0300<p>Everything about startups  and business is about risk, i.e. one can look at everything in startups and business in general through a risk lens. This arguably applies to life in general. I’m not a risk professional but this is a concept that I’ve mulled over for quite some time, but have taken far too long to put down. I’m sure this isn’t an original idea either, and of course it’s risk vs reward.</p>https://mugambi.co.ke/recovering-entrepreneur/https://mugambi.co.ke/recovering-entrepreneur/Sat, 05 Nov 2022 10:15:49 +0300<p>I've previously described myself as a ‘recovering entrepreneur’, but I haven’t quite gotten to the details of what that exactly means for me. I <a href="/normalizing-the-entrepreneurial-story/">wrote</a> about the entrepreneurial journey some years back. This 'update' post has been on my mind for several minds for several months, but I haven't had the time to distill my thoughts particularly well, or perhaps I've had the courage to put it up? </p><p>Building a business from scratch is <a href="https://a16z.com/book/the-hard-thing-about-hard-things/">HARD, HARD, HARD</a>. It is not for everyone. The probability of real success is pretty low. <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1295678/startup-failure-rate-in-africa-by-country/">A majority of new businesses fail</a> in just the first year. It's a hard fact (pun intended). It doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t attempt it; far from it. In fact I know people who wouldn’t do anything else - but it doesn’t make it any easier. Anyone can be an entrepreneur but not everyone should. </p>https://mugambi.co.ke/one-more-marathon/https://mugambi.co.ke/one-more-marathon/Wed, 02 Nov 2022 11:19:15 +0300I took part in the 2022 edition of the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon. Despite a somewhat truncated training period, I still managed to lower my PR by a few minutes (yay!) from my last race in 2019.https://mugambi.co.ke/attunement-and-the-ambivert-advantage/https://mugambi.co.ke/attunement-and-the-ambivert-advantage/Wed, 24 Aug 2022 07:13:31 +0300Introverts are ‘geared to inspect’ while extraverts are ‘geared to respond’. Selling of any sort - whether traditional sales or non-sales selling - requires a delicate balance of inspecting and responding. Ambiverts can find that balance - knowing when to speak up and when to shut up. https://mugambi.co.ke/lifelong-learning-range-being-a-deliberate-amateur/https://mugambi.co.ke/lifelong-learning-range-being-a-deliberate-amateur/Fri, 15 Jul 2022 14:27:57 +0300<p>I finally got round to finishing <a href="https://davidepstein.com/the-range/">Range</a>. One of my best books.</p><p>Here are some ideas from my favorite chapter, "Deliberate Amateur" which strongly resonated as I consider myself a life long learner, along with some final learnings.</p><p><strong>Amateur?</strong></p><p>It’s often that we see the word amateur being used in a denigrating fashion, or told that one needs to stick in a particular ‘lane’.</p><blockquote>“The word amateur did not originate as an insult, but comes from the Latin word for a person who adores a particular endeavour. A paradox of innovation and mastery is that breakthroughs often occur when you start down a road, but wander off for a ways and pretend as if you have just began”</blockquote><p>While one must respect deep domain expertise, the ‘stick in your lane’ mindset doesn’t quite work for collaboration and innovation:</p>https://mugambi.co.ke/wicked-problems-range/https://mugambi.co.ke/wicked-problems-range/Thu, 07 Apr 2022 06:04:20 +0300<blockquote>The more constrained and repetitive a challenge, the more likely it will be automated, while great rewards will accrue to those who can take conceptual knowledge from one problem or domain and apply it in an entirely new one.</blockquote><p>This excerpt resonates with me as I find myself tuning out if I have to repeat a task often. Wicked problems may contain repetitive aspects but it is likely that these would be a subset of the entire problem.</p>https://mugambi.co.ke/kind-vs-wicked-domains/https://mugambi.co.ke/kind-vs-wicked-domains/Thu, 31 Mar 2022 09:56:02 +0300Our greatest strength is the exact opposite of narrow specialisation. It is the ability to integrate broadlyhttps://mugambi.co.ke/people/https://mugambi.co.ke/people/Thu, 17 Mar 2022 08:27:27 +0300As entrepreneurs start and grow businesses, they are dependent on talented and skilful people and teams. https://mugambi.co.ke/ecosystems/https://mugambi.co.ke/ecosystems/Thu, 10 Mar 2022 11:26:06 +0300<p>I used to do a lot of personal blogging a long time ago. Then social media (read Twitter) happened. Over time, I have however realised that I gain a lot more understanding on a topic when I write, and so I made a promise to myself to write a lot more in 2022, and to do so each Thursday (lots of my posts have been a form of #TBT). Initially, I thought to chronicle my journey of learning and discovery as I figure out my next career step and was focused on diving deep into cloud and data. I still am, but on speaking to a few people over the last few weeks, and after my experiment with ‘Ask Me Almost Anything’, I have realised that I have been limiting myself, given my diverse interests and past experience. I guess this is part of what a friend has called a journey of self (re)discovery.</p>https://mugambi.co.ke/cloud-connecting-coffee-collaboration-ecosystems/https://mugambi.co.ke/cloud-connecting-coffee-collaboration-ecosystems/Thu, 03 Mar 2022 10:11:54 +0300Connecting, ‘getting your brain picked’, collaborating and ecosystem building have a common thread: they require building trust. This is necessarily hard and takes time. Hard because it’s all about people.https://mugambi.co.ke/open-source-tbt-and-a-side-project/https://mugambi.co.ke/open-source-tbt-and-a-side-project/Thu, 17 Feb 2022 07:33:24 +0300<p>This is a bit of a #ThrowBack now that it’s Thursday + a side project.</p><p>Once upon a time, I was quite the vociferous open source evangelist and got into lots of heated debates with some then Microsoft evangelists. I contributed a little to the debate in 2007-2008 on the OOXML standard that took place on the Skunkworks mailing list. </p><p>Kenya ended up abstaining - <a href="https://lnkd.in/grnSHHax">https://lnkd.in/grnSHHax</a>, though the standard was approved despite our efforts - <a href="https://edri.org/our-work/edrigramnumber6-7ooxml-adopted-iso/">https://edri.org/our-work/edrigramnumber6-7ooxml-adopted-iso/</a> and I shall link to a few more of my other posts below /o\.)</p>https://mugambi.co.ke/learning-andy-grove/https://mugambi.co.ke/learning-andy-grove/Tue, 08 Feb 2022 10:11:38 +0300Everyone is in businesshttps://mugambi.co.ke/focus-cloud-data-and-complex-problems/https://mugambi.co.ke/focus-cloud-data-and-complex-problems/Thu, 20 Jan 2022 09:24:00 +0300I needed to focus. Decided on Cloud, Data + Complex Problemshttps://mugambi.co.ke/curious-learning-by-doing-curiosity-did-not-kill-the-cat-a-career-update/https://mugambi.co.ke/curious-learning-by-doing-curiosity-did-not-kill-the-cat-a-career-update/Thu, 06 Jan 2022 10:08:00 +0300A brief career update as well as areas I'm exploring next.https://mugambi.co.ke/42/https://mugambi.co.ke/42/Wed, 11 Aug 2021 06:43:12 +0300<p>One of the best ways (I think) to celebrate a birthday is with a run. I find it hugely helpful to spend those hours reflecting on God's goodness for the years past. My 42k one month ago was my third time doing it, this time celebrating a marathon of years. </p><p><strong>42 Songs 42 km 42 years</strong></p><p>I created a playlist 4hrs 19 minutes long. Started with two ~20 minutes of the <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6njI7iEHXbQtJlYCa6rGEt?si=bcacd8ee96d44d8c">Truth for Life Daily Program</a> by Alistair Begg, followed by 42 of some of my favourite music.</p>https://mugambi.co.ke/character-matters/https://mugambi.co.ke/character-matters/Tue, 11 May 2021 17:24:03 +0300<blockquote>Sanctification in the very best is an imperfect work. The history of the brightest saints who ever lived will contain many a "but," and "howbeit," and "notwithstanding," before you reach the end. The gold will never be without some dross - the light will never shine without some clouds, until we reach heavenly Jerusalem. The sun himself has spots upon his face. The holiest men have many a blemish and defect when weighed in the balance of the sanctuary. Their life is a continual warfare with sin, the world, and the devil, and sometimes you will see them not overcoming, but overcome.</blockquote><p>J.C. Ryle, Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrance, Difficulties, and Roots (Abridged) (pg 87-88)</p>https://mugambi.co.ke/legacy/https://mugambi.co.ke/legacy/Fri, 30 Apr 2021 09:06:50 +0300<p>My grand-dad, the one I'm named after passed on about a month ago at 103(!) years. Indeed he lived a long and fruitful life - the bulk of the 20th century being born at the tail end of a world war, conscripted into service for the next one, becoming a sergeant (we unsuccessfully searched for his service record <a href="https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/units/4029/kings-african-rifles">online</a>), seeing independence, raising a family and seeing his grandchildren and great grandchildren.</p>https://mugambi.co.ke/cloud-certified/https://mugambi.co.ke/cloud-certified/Wed, 18 Dec 2019 14:30:25 +0300<p>TL:DR Old dogs *can* (un/re)learn new tricks - passing the Associate Cloud Engineer examination.</p><p><strong>Background</strong><br>I’m generally a curious person especially when it comes to matters tech. I enjoy experimenting, trying out new stuff. I also enjoy building products. The process of discovery, learning, and building is something I hope to never get over. Some months back, I decided I needed to ‘hit refresh’ on my technical skills - especially after a 3 year hiatus away from tech related roles. This was out of necessity: building a tech company, particularly one that’s exploratory in nature requires one to unlearn, learn, relearn on an almost daily basis. I used to be a developer once upon a time, as well as a systems engineer. I then took a break and spent 3 years full time in leadership at iHub (loads of personal growth!) before leaving at the end of 2017. Tech-wise, I’ve since jumped back to coding, into Golang (very elegant!), spent some time dipping my toes in data science (via wqu.org) and refreshing on the engineering math I once knew), while diving deep into public cloud - which brings me to Google's Associate Cloud Engineer Certification.</p>