Edition 2
2nd Edition of Muya's Newsletter - enjoy!
Karibu karibu to the 2nd edition of the newsletter! I know I said bi-weekly(-ish) but oh well - here we are.
In this edition, we explore music (and not all of it in English), The Wire makes an appearance, and we visit bookshops in Cairo (virtually).
There’s also a new section: where we explore questions from some of the mentees I’ve been working with over the past few months. I’ve been getting really amazing questions from them, and I think it’s worth sharing it with more people - I hope you learn something.
🎧 Aimez ces airs (French for “Like these Tunes”)
The title for this edition’s music section comes from an album I came across: Aimez ces airs - DjeuDjoah, Lieutenant Nicholson - the music is French, I don’t understand a word of it, but I love the songs so far!
Other music that made it to the list:
Soulection Episode 522: Apple Music | SoundCloud - I’ve been listening to Soulection since around 2014, it’s become a weekly (Sunday morning) ritual. It’s always been a source of amazing music over the years, and this episode was one of the enjoyable ones in this period - enjoy!
Summer Madness S.A. - Karriem Riggins - another non-English one - this time Portuguese; it’s a sample of Olha O Menino by Caetano Veloso. I’ve been enjoying the somewhat simple, “flowy” nature of it, a nice chill beat. (Also, it seems any song named “Summer Madness” gets to be really nice - like this one by Kool & The Gang)
Hanye! Spotify | Apple Music | Deezer - This one is a playlist by Kophen - chockfull of Kenyan throwback jams! A lot of classics from Nameless, Nonini, E-sir and more. I’ve listened to this playlist so many times. Also, check out more playlists from Kophen - she’s an amazing playlist curator (and the playlist image covers are also 🔥)
Kula Tatu - Wanavokali - another one that’s a throwback in a sense: talking about the Kenyan version of poker that we played as kids. It’s the 10th track on their (first?) album: Wakavokali: The Album. This is my 2nd favourite of tracks, after Rhumba. I think this group lives up to their name - those vocals!!! 😍
📖 Reading List
Introducing Pebble: A RocksDB Inspired Key-Value Store Written in Go - I came across this while learning about CockroachDB, it’s the storage engine that’s used by the distributed database. I enjoyed this because I ended up learning quite a bit about the backend in use by Cockroach DB. It also introduced me to 2 new things: Metamorphic Testing, and YCSB framework (when did you last read a paper 😉, of any kind?!) for determining performance.
Don’t ask where I’m from, ask where I’m a local - (does a video with a transcript pass as something to read?) - this one came from one of the Kamilimu mentorship sessions, and in it, writer Taiye Selasi explores an alternative to asking: "Where are you from?"; the three Rs: Rituals, Relationships, Restrictions - give a great framework to frame where you are a local, therefore giving a more holistic view of who you are.
Writing the Good English - this is an old article by @ndinda_- it piqued my interest because it asks the questions: “What is your English? Which language do you dream in?”
The Prisoner’s Dilemma - In a conversation I was having, the concept of "The Prisoner's Dilemma" came up. The conversation reminded me of S05E01 of The Wire: More with Less, and some DuckDuckGo-ing led me to this article, which confirms that the episode portrays this theory. (And you have watched The Wire, right? If you haven't, please stop reading this, and go watch all 5 seasons, if you feel like it - it’s streaming on Showmax)
Law Enforcement Learning from TV Shows - still on “The Wire” - looks like some FBI agents were also keen viewers of the show - they were able to sell compromised devices to criminals! Lester Freamon’s protégés these were 😅
🐦 From the Bird App
This post stood out me because Egypt has been on my mind lately, and also because I love books.
The author, @bahirairl, walks us through Cairo exploring booksellers and booksellers’ shops - such beautiful photos as well!
📱 New Tech
An interesting app I came across was Alfread, which is a mobile app that’s meant to help you get through your Read It Later list (Pocket or InstaPaper), by picking up a random article from your list, and sending a notification to you to read it.
I’m a huge fan of Pocket, but one of the things that inevitably ends up happening, is that it becomes a graveyard of unread articles.
Anything that helps you get through such lists is a welcome idea.
Fun fact: I’m also working on a similar app on the side, with the delivery channel being already existing platforms (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, etc) - hit me up if you’re interested in helping test.
🌱 From the Mentorship Series
In the first edition of the series, we talk about how to value client’s projects (for the freelancers), whether you should consider shares as an option (pun intended 🤣) for payment, and how to justify your contribution to a business as a Technical Founder.
Check it out on the blog: Mentorship Series Edition 1: Client Project Valuation, Accepting Shares for Work, Being a Technical Founder.
Enjoy! And share it with someone who might find it useful.
And that’s it for this Edition! I hope you enjoyed it, had a laugh, and / or learnt at least one new thing.
Until next time, stay safe! Bye!