Mugalla

Polymath. (Political Science, Economics, Business, Software Dev)
We can better our societies by innovation, humanism & knowledge.

[Mugalla @JJ_Mugalla]

Intellectual brilliance can never be measured by how many degrees one has, or universities one attended, or grades one scored. It all boils down to one's ability to think, research, compile and compose well-articulated thoughts.

[Mugalla @JJ_Mugalla]

@C_NyaKundiH @KenyaPower The biggest challenge is reliability. You just cannot run on KPLC power when doing businesses such as chick hatching, and at times hospitals or industrial sites security lights. The delay in power outage response and rising power bills compound the problem.

[Mugalla @JJ_Mugalla]

What makes a state capable of delivering development? Competent institutions, state capacity, long-term planning, education, infrastructure, productivity and the ability to actually execute may tell us far more than the label we attach to the political system.

[Janet Machuka @janetmachuka_]

I still will commend people to create communities that help them not forget the essence of conversations. It’s the conversations that births ideas that we turn into writing.

Write as you talk and you’ll never feel automated or ‘watermarked’

[Nora @nora_mindnotes]

I’m starting to understand why some people disappear for a while when they’re trying to change their lives. It’s not always about being antisocial. Sometimes you simply need less noise around you so you can hear your own thoughts again and figure out what you actually want.

[Mugalla @JJ_Mugalla]

@Its_Roddie Mzee, with 5M unarudi kwa basics, own land, shares, the only entrepreneurship unashika ni either buying stock or buying small struggling businesses that make sense but lack expansion capital. Alafu unanunua job ya 8-5 just for structure and predictable income for petty cash.

[Machiavelli Bot @UnmodernmanBot]

I instinctively don’t like men who ask for permission.

I favour interns and associates who act, then apologise. I can see courage in them.

I can see where it will take them in the future.

There’s absolutely nothing worse than a man lacking the courage to face wrongdoing.

[Okong' Okuna @XivTroy]

I recently did an experiment. I cheated in a monopoly game. I wanted to examine the extent to which undue advantage such as embezzlement/inheritance influenced economic outcomes relative to chance and initiative. I ended up building 2 hotels before the others could build a house (CAPITAL ACCUMULATION).

It got to a place where, I stopped accepting rent from players that landed in the hotels. I instead offered to wipe away their debt in exchange for their land, which was sometimes only a quarter of the debt owed (ASSET-PRICE INFLATION).

The other players could not outbid me for the land as the owner owed me too much (BARGAINING/MARKET POWER).

The more land I got, the more I built. I was barely using the money I had. If I landed in their owned properties, the other players were more willing to overlook what I owed them because after every round I awarded each of them about $50 just to keep them in check (SOCIAL CAPITAL).

And every time I did, I sang about how generous I was (POLITICAL LEGITIMACY).

By the end of it, I owned all land. Had 5 hotels, across 5 prime lands (ASSET CONCENTRATION).

I came to the conclusion that unless by some miracle, you cannot outwit a flawed economic system. Undue advantage has a better compounding influence on positive economic outcomes than initiative and chance (OUTLIERS).

[Incentivising @incentivising]

The issue with modern society is that everyone feels important and seen. In days past, your lack of purpose would be the root of your effort. You wish to be seen, so you need to work for it; otherwise, it will remain an unrequited dream. In the process, you would build something truly impressive. Take a close look at what a person has to do to feel significant today: go on Instagram, upload a story, fulfill your hidden desire to be seen, and show us only the grandest, most sumptuous facets of your life. But what have you accomplished, except the feigning of significance? It, in itself, is just an elaborate self-betrayal.

[Okong' Okuna @XivTroy]

And I think brilliance is the easy part. Structure, that's the mountain. To do something repeatedly, consistently, and adequately takes a lot more than inherent nature. Brilliance without structure will always be potential, which gradually mestasizes into regret.

[Jostein Hauge @haugejostein]

When China lifted 900 million people out of poverty, this did not cause the immiseration of 900 million people elsewhere.

So, no, industrial policy is not a zero-sum game.

[Machiavelli Bot @UnmodernmanBot]

There are people you should never defeat publicly even when you easily can. A private correction gives someone an opportunity to adjust. Public humiliation gives them an incentive to recover their status by attacking yours.

[Machiavelli Bot @UnmodernmanBot]

Pick one domain of competence that society values & sacrifice everything to become sublime exceptional at it. Then leverage it to impose your will. Then watch your influence grow & your presence become a force.

[Nelson Amenya @amenya_nelson]

In the 1970s, Kenya experienced some of the strongest economic growth in its history, a period sometimes described as an economic miracle. More importantly, Kenya recorded exceptionally strong growth in Total Factor Productivity (TFP). That productivity performance subsequently declined and has never been sustainably replicated at the same level.

But what exactly is TFP?

Think of an economy as a car.
Capital and human resources are the fuel going into the engine. You can make the car travel further by simply putting in more fuel, just as a country can grow by investing more money, building more infrastructure and adding more workers.

But there is another way to go further: build a better engine, like how we say tune the engine.

A better engine takes the same amount of fuel and produces more power. In an economy, that is essentially what TFP measures: our ability to produce more output from the same capital and human resources.

Technology can improve the engine. Better infrastructure improves it. More efficient institutions, better management, innovation, skills, competition and smarter allocation of resources all help the economy squeeze more output from the inputs it already has.

Vietnam offers a useful example of what happens when a country improves its economic engine.

In the 1970s, Vietnam was emerging from decades of war and later struggled under a centrally planned economic system. But following the Đổi Mới reforms beginning in 1986, it progressively opened its economy, attracted foreign investment, expanded manufacturing, adopted new technologies and integrated itself into global supply chains

[Felix Kitaka @TheMutambuze]

My son, there is no perfect woman.

We are all born unfinished. Life is the work of becoming better.

Be blessed.

[ManCaveUG @ManCaveUg]

https://t.co/7WgLDnd1Ga

[JaPrado. @Dr_AustinOmondi]

"A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others.

When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and, in order to divert himself, having no love in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest forms of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal. And it all comes from lying - lying to others and to yourself."

- Fyoder Dostoevsky

[Machiavelli Bot @UnmodernmanBot]

If you want confidence, stop aiming to avoid failure. Aim to recover fast. Take the hit, learn the lesson, adjust, repeat. The man who can bounce back becomes fearless over time, because he trusts his ability to rebuild even when things go wrong.

[Jostein Hauge @haugejostein]

Indeed. Kaldor's growth laws are still highly relevant for understanding economic development:

1. Manufacturing growth drives GDP growth.

2. Manufacturing output growth drives manufacturing productivity growth.

3. Manufacturing growth raises productivity outside manufacturing.

[Jostein Hauge @haugejostein]

An alternative way to look at this is that China's rise has closely mirrored theories in the political economy tradition. However, that tradition is marginalised in mainstream economics today.

China's rise has been about mobilising massive investments in the productive sectors of the economy, specifically manufacturing. This is something the political economy tradition has emphasised for a long time, from Adam Smith and Karl Marx through to Nicholas Kaldor and Albert Hirschman. Yet their ideas are barely taught in economics departments today.

[Okong' Okuna @XivTroy]

I didn't set out to live a long life so I'm not entirely keen on wealth. If I seek money, it's merely to keep body & soul together as nature demands. But beyond that, my aspirations lean more towards adventure: to experience new people, sights, cuisines & the occasional romance.