No matter how much talent there is, it will never become a successfull industry if:

1) People don’t work together
2) People accept other people
3) People become professional

Now, looking at the local situation\culture\mentality:

1) Few people here really work together – more often they rip each other off (hit and run) instead of investing in relationships that last years;

2) Xenophobia is rampant – “SA is great, the rest of the world is only out there to get them”. Guys, wake up: that was before 94 – since then you’re not on anybody’s radar anylonger. So, get over your inferiority complex and get to WORK;

3)
a) Africa time is for losers – if you can’t manage your own time, don’t expect anybody else to let you manage his money, account or company – grow up, be a man, be in time;
b) You have a cellphone? Of course you do, it’s your status\phallus symbol. Then use it – to inform people about appointments, delays etc. Communicate. Return calls. Mxit is fab cool, but that is not what you have a phone for when making a living;
c) Prepare yourself, present yourself, educate yourself – about your industry, country, this world you live in – it’s a national hobby to whine about your country, ‘abroad being heaven’: have you been there? Realising what it takes to survive there? If not, shut up and count your blessings – you’re only making a fool of yourself. And boring, sounding like a broken record.

Now, back to work. Hard. Together. And fair. There’s a lot to do, but more to gain.

Who wants a piece of this???

The party is picking up.. (-;

I just had a chat with Tania at Barbarellas.
Wed 28 March. Confirmed. Starting between 18:00 and 19:00. We have the whole venue for a private function. Can seat up to 100 people.

The whole thing with the 27 vs geekdinner thing is so wild. But things could be worse than us trying to outdo each other in creating new spaces to connect, do business and explore what a real tech start-up culture SHOULD look like. I’ve been paying attention to the culture in tech hotspots around the world & we need to catch up a little >> a LOT of business goes down through social interaction..and I sure as hell am not going to be playing golf.

Lets shape our world the way we want it to be here, so we can live local & work global. We build a tight tech community and I assure you we will have massive investment flooding at us >> We have superb minds here: far too many doing projects waaaaay below their capacity! That’s just a waste of valuable geekdom right there.

“Reality is the temporary resultant of the struggle between rival gangs of programmers” – Robert Anton Wilson

I’m not a great speaker, but I’d be happy to balance Neil’s Python propaganda with some Ruby. (My second favourite language, but we can’t have too many Python zealots around…)