Dec 30, 1969Building
The thing about building software with AI is that the bottleneck stops being the code and starts being the clarity of the vision. Whichever founder writes the clearest spec, wins. I am still learning to write clear specs.
Field Notes
Small, often.
The stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else.
Not everything I think is worth a newsletter. Most of it isn't even worth a tweet. But some of it is worth keeping — half-thoughts, lessons from building, things I noticed this week, the occasional confession. This is where I leave them. Short. Honest. Updated whenever the world hands me something worth writing down.
Dec 27, 1969Thinking
A reminder, mostly to myself: African economies are not behind. Africa is early. There is a difference, and the second one is much more interesting.
Dec 25, 1969Life
Leo asked me what I do for work today. I told him I help people understand the future a little better. He thought about it, then asked if he could have a banana. The time horizon thing is real.
Dec 18, 1969Reading
Read a paper this morning that argued central banks should treat sentiment data the same way meteorologists treat satellite imagery. I'm not sure they're right, but I'm not sure they're wrong either.
Dec 11, 1969Thinking
The most underrated economic indicator in Kenya might be the price of a tomato in Marikiti at 5am on a Tuesday.
Dec 2, 1969Life
Just realised I've been writing The Economic Whisperer for several months and I've never missed one. That is the longest streak of anything I've ever sustained. I'm a little proud of that.
Nov 27, 1969Building
If you can't explain your thesis to a smart 17-year-old in three sentences, the thesis isn't done yet. Mine has needed four sentences for a year. Working on it.
Nov 20, 1969Thinking
There's a particular kind of African economist who is allergic to data. There's another kind who is allergic to anything but data. The good ones are allergic to neither.
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