VSLWJ-1 Where Are You?

I am calling this series The Very Short Long Winding Journey.
I will use the acronym VSLWJ
This is part 1, titles Where Are You?

To all the new members of Digital Africa, I welcome you.
The best way to describe myself is that I am a social scientist that has become very much into technology, and especially computer/internet/Web technology. 
Digital Africa is a collective vision I have with some friends, to help Africans of all ages and genders to discover the many opportunities I have found as a result of purposeful use of the Web. 

We want to help you learn the best way to use the World Wide Web to your advantage. 
I am not saying that the way I am suggesting is the only way to do it.
But I am saying that this way has been very very effective for me. 
If you know other ways, I will still suggest you add this to your arsenal. 

I am not claiming that everything I write here is the gospel truth and that you must obey them as the law. You are free to doubt and challenge my claims.
In fact, I hope you all do, because that is how we sharpen our brains: by listening to various view points and challenging all of them frequently.

So let's go!

Google Is Not Your Friend. 

You Are Your Friend.

Google is doing it's own thing. It doesn't care about you or me. It is just doing what it was programmed to do, which is to serve information.
There are rewarding and empowering types of information. But there are also damaging and destructive kinds of information.
Google can lead you to find info that can land you the wonderful job of your dreams. Google can also lead you to some terrorist websites that have led to the deaths of teenage girls in Europe. 

So let me ask you, Where Are You?

Everything you know and can do today are things that you gradually trained yourself to know since your childhood.
You might be thinking that your teachers trained you. But the truth is that most of the effort came from within you yourself as you were paying attention to the subject those teachers were teaching.

But then, why don't I understand Geography the way I understood Economics?
Maybe it was because I immediately loved hearing about Demand & Supply, and I instantly got bored when they were talking about glaciers. 

Sometimes somethings are more difficult than others to pay attention to, but that doesn't mean that those things are inherently harder than the easier ones you paid attention to. 
What it really suggests is that the new things that you are learning have a relationship (either similarities or interesting contrasts) with some of the things you already know inside you.

So where YOU ARE NOW is what will determine how difficult or EASY it will be to go to where you wish to be. 

So the next question to you will be, what do you WANT TO BE?

You pick up your smartphone, you open your laptop, you go to Google, then you search. For what?
"Chelsea vs Tottenham football?"
"Kyle Jenner dating Wizkid?"
What are you looking for?


Whatever it is, you constantly go to the zero moment of truth to find MORE about that thing. And you do this for the other things that interest you. This is the current reality the technology has brought the world to today. And it is not only Google. Facebook, Whatsapp, Youtube. All these apps serve you information in different ways.  

If you go to Facebook, it is because something kind of curiosity was on your mind. Maybe you want to know what your friend is saying today. Or you want to see what is happening in your Whatsapp chat group. Which ever way you look at it, you are still looking for MORE information.
When you open your Whatsapp, it is not to look for Rotimi's update. Because you are NOT thinking about my updates. You go to Whatsapp to CONTINUE what you are already familiar with. You keep up with people that you have already know before. People who are interesting to YOU! 

The zero moment of truth (ZMOT) is that EASY PLACE where computers/phones have made information instantly available. If information is power, then we have become many times more powerful than people of many decades ago. But what kind of power are we going after? That's the problem.

Google is a ZMOT. Youtube is a ZMOT. 
However, Facebook CAN also BE used as a ZMOT. Whatsapp CAN BE used as a ZMOT.  But these two primarily bring information to you. 
In fact, in most cases, the info you get on Facebook and Whatsapp usually leads you to search Google or Youtube for clearer understanding. 

And yet, this doesn't mean that the info you get from Google or Youtube is always the correct answer. Not necessarily. Getting the right answer usually requires more than one attempt. 

But the crux of the matter is that these platforms give you MORE information about some things YOU are ALREADY LOOKING for.   
ZMOT is a place where you go looking for answers (for information). On Google and Youtube and Quora, you go looking for answers. On Facebook, Whatsapp, etc, you might ask your friends or connections to answer a question you have.



Finally, in the next part of this VSLWJ series, I will show that whether it is football or entertainment news or technology you are learning online, there are good ways to learn them, and there are bad ways to learn them. 
Your use of Zero Moment of Truth can help you or hinder you. This is coming in "VSLWJ-2 How You Got There"
Please stay tuned.

The little children now have the potential to LEARN many times faster and more thoroughly than older generations. They can become geniuses so quickly that we would be astonished. This is because of the power of the learning tools they will be exposed to as they grow up.  

Meanwhile, I have introduced a term here. 
Some of you are probably hearing of the Zero Moment Of Truth for the first time today.
I recommend that you read more about it and start building your curiosity about future technologies.
I also want to recommend for future purposes, anytime you come across a new term in anything you are reading online. Quickly right click on that term (the link) and open it in a new window, so that you can read up on that new term, understand it (you don't have to finish reading the whole thing), then go back to continue reading what you were reading with the term in it. Hence, during my learning journeys online, I may start reading one article, but end up reading 5 articles in the process.

So like I said, this is about helping you developing the purposeful reading tools and a personal learning system that you can use to EMPOWER YOURSELF!   

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below. 
I am very VERY open to contrary opinions, so please feel free.

Also kindly follow the Digital Africa blog by clicking here. 

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London Skill Acquisition Opportunity!

The British Council is offering a huge opportunity for young Africans (ages 18 to 35) to obtain valuable training and skill acquisition in policy making in London, UK. Those who are selected to go for this trip will travel around October 2018, so please get in touch with me ASAP for assistance and advice on how to apply and prepare for this opportunity. 

See it at the British Council Website

Dear friends, I know it's been a while since I shared a post about anything other than solar energy.
I apologize for this.
As you probably know, it is because I've relocated to California, and I recently got a job with Tesla Energy, which has reduced the amount of time that I have to spend writing articles online.

Nevertheless, thanks to my lovely sister, who is a huge supporter of the Digital Africa cause, I was able to discover this great event.

You all know how much I have been repeatedly advising you to actively develop yourselves in terms of knowledge acquisition that has been made super easy and very accessible because of the world wide web, and especially because of each individual's own INTEREST and eagerness to use SEARCH. (You can read my article about getting more out of search here)

Now, a big opportunity presents itself, and I am confident that if you work hard with me to prepare yourself for your application, you will increase your chances of being selected. 

For starters, here are the requirements of the British Council for this programme, but it is very important that you don't read this list and begin to feel discouraged for whatever reason. 
Like I've said before, I am here to help.
  

• You should be able to passionately explain how you want to make change in your country and how this links to your vision for global change.
• You should have an understanding of policy and are interested in learning more about policy making. 
• You should be willing to engage in this long-term opportunity with the British Council to become a member of Future Leaders Connect and be committed to the network. 
• You are likely to be in your early to mid-career, aged between 18 and 35 (on Sunday 13 May 2018) and already have examples of when you have demonstrated leadership.
• You will need to be based in one of our participating countries (Canada, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tunisia, UK and USA) and be eligible to access a visa to come to the UK. Please be aware some of these countries have varying eligibility criteria. Applications from Egypt and USA are by invitation only. 
• We are looking for emerging leaders who are committed to support the development of their country through policy change, and so encourage those to apply who have good knowledge and strong networks in the country they are based in.
• We are looking to find a diverse group of people with different experiences, ideas and backgrounds. The programme is fully accessible for those with disabilities. 
• Be able to speak English at IELTS level 6 or equivalent (this means you would need to generally have an effective command of the language despite some inaccuracies, inappropriate usage and misunderstandings. You can use and understand fairly complex language, particularly in familiar situations). You do not need the official qualification.
• You cannot be currently employed by, or an immediate family member of, the British Council, Gradcore or the Møller Centre. 

Finally, I am very delighted to share this great opportunity in Digital Africa for our members all over the glorious continent.
And I want to encourage everyone in this community to share discoveries like this in any of our groups:

Digital Africa on Google+

Digital Africa on Facebook

A Tesla Short

On my way to work this morning.....there she was......little red riding hood.
This is the first time I would see one parked. Roughly, 100 meters from where I currently live in El-Cerrito.

That red beauty, surrounded by those lifeless, grey metallic dinosaurs.

The Tesla #Model3

Quick Disclaimer:

I currently work for Tesla. But I must point out that I started my self-sustained advocacy for this amazing brand over 6 years ago, from far away Nigeria, where I lived until just a little over a year ago. 
In fact, now that I work for Tesla, and have been warned to be super careful about how I promote the brand online (social media and whatnot), I have become very tame about my online posts and articles mentioning the brand. Which makes me quite sad actually.   

Anyway, this post you are about to read is completely my opinion. Every thought that goes behind the issues I raise in here, entirely originates from me and it has nothing to do with my employer. 

Backstory:

When Tesla launched the Roadster in 2006, most of the world laughed at the little company from Silicon Valley, saying what could they possibly know about building cars.
Then the Model S came in 2012, and a few of them sat up and said, "hey wait a minute!" 
But many still continued to scoff and show contempt for things they are unable to comprehend.

Now, Model 3 has finally arrived amidst great panic and hysteria among the old guard.
They now know beyond a reasonable doubt that their time is fast running out.
In their panic and confusion, after failing to get government to help them crush their "tiny" nemesis, they resort to senseless bickering and prophesies of impending doom for Tesla.



They go around making announcements of their electric cars that will come out to "crush Tesla".

Ask them when are these wonderful Electric cars coming, and most of them will say 2020 or 2021.
Will these wonderful "Tesla killers" be any different from the Chevrolet Bolt? Or the BMW i3? Because those two did not kill anything but themselves! 

Yet, they somehow want us to believe that they can use the power of TALK to wipe Tesla off the face of the planet.
They think they can wave a magic wand and brag about their "years of experience" in car manufacturing. Or talk about expertise in stock markets and accounting, and that that would somehow make Tesla's growing fans suddenly stop liking the company. 


So my thinking is this:
If indeed GM and BMW have somehow figured out how to make their electric cars look better and go further than their Bolts and i3s, even then, I can argue that is is still NOT Tesla that needs to be worried.
Why?

It is their gasoline-locked Chevrolet Malibus and BMW 3 series that should be scared of these wonderful electric cars coming out, right?
Afterall, Teslas, GM elctric cars and BMWs, Porsches and Audi electric cars are ALL still ..... CARS! And so are their gasoline cars. They all literally do the same things! But some of them (the electric cars) are constantly getting OPTIMIZED, while others simply CAN NOT!  

But the funniest part is that these "experienced experts" keep forgetting that Tesla is a puppet-master in this story. 
The undeniable truth is that Tesla always wanted competition from the big car companies. 
They always needed these dinosaurs to get off their lazy butts and build great electric cars.
The mission is to get the world away from fossil fuels. 
Elon Musk knew that as long as there was no catalyst, the old car manufacturers would NOT lead any serious charge into clean transportation. 
He figured that if he would have to FORCE the richest automobile manufacturers to start doing the right thing.
I have proof. Read this blog post by Elon Musk in 2014:  

You see?
They have been begging for "competition". 
So next time you hear someone saying that other car manufacturers are coming to crush Tesla, please tell them Tesla DARES them!!!

Now, also check out this one going all the way back to 2006. See for yourself, what I mean by puppet master :

"...This is because the overarching purpose of Tesla Motors is to help expedite the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy, which I believe to be the primary, but not exclusive, sustainable solution." - Elon Musk

Quote me on this one:
While the so-called experienced car-makers are building $40,000 electric cars that look like $18,000 cars, Tesla is busy growing its street-cred by building a $35,000 that looks as cool as some $50,000 cars. 

Who Is The Wiser?

Now pay attention to this detail that the "experts" will NEVER tell you. This truth that the giant car manufacturers and car distribution networks who prophesy the death for Tesla forgot about. Whether ignorantly or conveniently, I really don't know. 

It is probably the part that the enemies of Tesla ridicule the most. They scoffed at it even more than they had scoffed at the idea of a tiny Californian company building cars...

They scoffed at Tesla acquiring SolarCity......

But now, I ask YOU to pay attention:

When these new "great and awesome" electric BMWs and Audis and Chevrolets that are going to be built by the old guard come out to crush Tesla's business, what effect would that have on the world at large?

Would these new electric cars be bought by human beings who have neighbors and friends? Would these new electric car owners not eventually learn about their new EV cars and the possibilities that they open them up to? 

Would they not eventually discover that it now makes more economic sense for them to generate more-or-less carbon free "fuel" for their electric cars from home? 
Would that not cause them to take a second look at solar energy and realize that they can now get MUCH CHEAPER  ELECTRICITY from Solar and a Home Battery at no upfront costs. 

As this gradually but surely sinks into the minds and hearts of the population, the electric car explosion quickly leads to the renewable energy explosion (especially solar energy) and vise-versa.

And, guess what solar company was already a clear leader in the renewable energy market, and has now become even more potent as its branding has changed???

Can you guess? 

I'll give you a hint...... it is neither GM nor BMW.....

Keep it locked here. The future is truly going to be interesting.
♥