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Making the Ugali Machine
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washiku
#21 Posted : Wednesday, September 23, 2015 1:42:56 PM
Rank: Chief

Joined: 5/9/2007
Posts: 13,095
KulaRaha wrote:


Our friends have done it already for their favourite dish...the chapo!


Nice. Chapomatic. This can work very well for hotels and schools too.
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Anti_Burglar
#22 Posted : Wednesday, September 23, 2015 1:44:14 PM
Rank: Veteran

Joined: 9/11/2015
Posts: 1,024
PeterReborn wrote:
masukuma wrote:
this is laughable... but it may work! Who knows? it may work but we can do a sniff test... What problem are you trying to fix? (remember the early bird gets the worm but the second mouse eats the cheese and pioneers are the ones with arrows on their backs) Do people consider what you think is a problem as being a problem? Or do you need to educate them that it's a problem? Do they think its a problem worth automating and paying money for? Considering Ugali is eaten more by poor people than others - do you think poor people are willing to buy this contraption - if you don't you will end up like the 3D visualization guy in this video


remember at the day you need to
1) BUILD A PRODUCT TO FIX A PROBLEM PEOPLE HAVE
2) BUILD A PRODUCT THAT PEOPLE WANT AND ARE WILLING TO PAY MONEY FOR
No one really wants you to succeed - they just want Ugali made... is hiring a mboch to cook Ugali better than Buying the gizmo!

Maybe I am biased... I dislike Ugali! I find it tasteless (I am forced to eat it by the Mrs... happy wife happy life) and I am yet to find someone who discovered ugali in their adult age who thinks it's worth the effort... I equally dislike Matoke and Mokimo but again - that's just me.

I think you missed the point that Ndemo was delivering.He is talking of having home grown solutions to our local problems.We dont need to wait for Wazungus to come and fix our problems.He is looking at how we can be creative and nurture local talents to provide solutions.Again riding on the same theme that Ngugi wa Thiong'o was talking about on the story of Gachamba and how we as a country have killed creativity and local solutions.

"If we need jobs, we must innovate. We cannot innovate without producing a critical mass of engineers. If there is a problem like the one we are facing with the Engineers Board, we must seek to solve it expeditiously.

We cannot catch up with the rest of the world if we keep frustrating our brightest minds, refusing to register them as engineers while driving on roads built by engineers from China and Turkey whom our Engineers Board has not vetted, in vehicles built by engineers over whose registration our engineers board has no control.

Yet the board-registered engineers have not succeeded in turning Kenya into an industrialised nation. Time has come when the registration board must remove the log that is in its own eye. Parliament needs to urgently look into this law and amend it as it is hindering the training of technical professionals in this country."


If Ndemo wanted to talk about home grown solutions, he would have talked about home grown solution. But no he talked about ugali making machine. Ugali making machine is what he spoke about, not home grown solutions. He was pretty clear about it.
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Anti_Burglar
#23 Posted : Wednesday, September 23, 2015 1:52:13 PM
Rank: Veteran

Joined: 9/11/2015
Posts: 1,024
sitaki.kujulikana wrote:
Anti_Burglar wrote:
There was a time when Binyavanga Wainaina was speaking when he 'came out'. He was speaking about the same thing - about why we always have to be 'traditional'

Ati why we cannot 'add value' to potatoes and make crisps. As if eating potatoes as crisps is better than eating potatoes as mukimo.

These are the idlers in our midst.

Why want to fix what is not broken? Because Mzungu are doing it?

We are not referring to adding value but increasing efficiency.

For example the typical household chores take up a whole day and these are duties that would easily be compressed into a couple of hours.

The reason the ugali example comes up is due to the fact that the same is not a common meal in the west as it is especially in Kenya and thus the lack of ways to make preparing the same more efficient come into question.

Of course there are more examples like why would people especially in rural areas suffer when rivers dry up, while building dams is a technology even beavers have mastered.



Efficiency? In ugali cooking? Let's see:
1. Boil water
2. Add the flour
3. koroga
4. Pakua

Which step is inefficient and needs increased efficiency that the cooking machine can and will provide?
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masukuma
#24 Posted : Wednesday, September 23, 2015 2:03:54 PM
Rank: Elder

Joined: 10/4/2006
Posts: 13,823
Location: Nairobi
Anti_Burglar wrote:
sitaki.kujulikana wrote:
Anti_Burglar wrote:
There was a time when Binyavanga Wainaina was speaking when he 'came out'. He was speaking about the same thing - about why we always have to be 'traditional'

Ati why we cannot 'add value' to potatoes and make crisps. As if eating potatoes as crisps is better than eating potatoes as mukimo.

These are the idlers in our midst.

Why want to fix what is not broken? Because Mzungu are doing it?

We are not referring to adding value but increasing efficiency.

For example the typical household chores take up a whole day and these are duties that would easily be compressed into a couple of hours.

The reason the ugali example comes up is due to the fact that the same is not a common meal in the west as it is especially in Kenya and thus the lack of ways to make preparing the same more efficient come into question.

Of course there are more examples like why would people especially in rural areas suffer when rivers dry up, while building dams is a technology even beavers have mastered.



Efficiency? In ugali cooking? Let's see:
1. Boil water
2. Add the flour
3. koroga
4. Pakua

Which step is inefficient and needs increased efficiency that the cooking machine can and will provide?

why are people skirting around the most important issue...WHO WILL PAY FOR IT? right? I am sure a device to koroga paste until a certain consistency can be created... the biggest problem is never the product creating its
GO TO MARKET and BUSINESS MODEL i.e. How do you get your contraption to the guy who wants it - who is this guy? 2. how do you charge him? Everyone here is discussing technology for technology sake... we need to put the contraption into peoples homes... who are these people? how are they doing it now? will they abandon what they are doing now to embrace your machine?
Anyone who has been to the subcontinent understands that making bread(roti, chapati, paratha, double roti) is a trade that is done by specialized people. you can see these specialized individuals walking around with Chapos kama gazetti (on their armpits). Your housecook will tell you to buy from this chapati makers - why? coz this is how they do it

I can see how one can convince the owner of this establishment to buy a chapo maker! Back to Ugali maker - who is this guy? Ama we are engaging in a science project whose monetization strategy involves throwing stuff onto a wall and seeing what sticks.
All Mushrooms are edible! Some Mushroom are only edible ONCE!
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  | | Edit by user: Wednesday, September 23, 2015 2:05 PM | Reason: Not specified
majimaji
#25 Posted : Wednesday, September 23, 2015 2:05:04 PM
Rank: Veteran

Joined: 4/4/2007
Posts: 1,162
Anti_Burglar wrote:
sitaki.kujulikana wrote:
Anti_Burglar wrote:
There was a time when Binyavanga Wainaina was speaking when he 'came out'. He was speaking about the same thing - about why we always have to be 'traditional'

Ati why we cannot 'add value' to potatoes and make crisps. As if eating potatoes as crisps is better than eating potatoes as mukimo.

These are the idlers in our midst.

Why want to fix what is not broken? Because Mzungu are doing it?

We are not referring to adding value but increasing efficiency.

For example the typical household chores take up a whole day and these are duties that would easily be compressed into a couple of hours.

The reason the ugali example comes up is due to the fact that the same is not a common meal in the west as it is especially in Kenya and thus the lack of ways to make preparing the same more efficient come into question.

Of course there are more examples like why would people especially in rural areas suffer when rivers dry up, while building dams is a technology even beavers have mastered.



Efficiency? In ugali cooking? Let's see:
1. Boil water
2. Add the flour
3. koroga
4. Pakua

Which step is inefficient and needs increased efficiency that the cooking machine can and will provide?


If there is a coffee maker machine in the office, why not an ugali maker?
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sitaki.kujulikana
#26 Posted : Wednesday, September 23, 2015 2:05:25 PM
Rank: Veteran

Joined: 8/25/2012
Posts: 1,826
Anti_Burglar wrote:
sitaki.kujulikana wrote:
Anti_Burglar wrote:
There was a time when Binyavanga Wainaina was speaking when he 'came out'. He was speaking about the same thing - about why we always have to be 'traditional'

Ati why we cannot 'add value' to potatoes and make crisps. As if eating potatoes as crisps is better than eating potatoes as mukimo.

These are the idlers in our midst.

Why want to fix what is not broken? Because Mzungu are doing it?

We are not referring to adding value but increasing efficiency.

For example the typical household chores take up a whole day and these are duties that would easily be compressed into a couple of hours.

The reason the ugali example comes up is due to the fact that the same is not a common meal in the west as it is especially in Kenya and thus the lack of ways to make preparing the same more efficient come into question.

Of course there are more examples like why would people especially in rural areas suffer when rivers dry up, while building dams is a technology even beavers have mastered.



Efficiency? In ugali cooking? Let's see:
1. Boil water
2. Add the flour
3. koroga
4. Pakua

Which step is inefficient and needs increased efficiency that the cooking machine can and will provide?

you don't get it, ugali is used a representation of the wider picture.
Either way lets look at ugali, how long does it take to cook ugali, how long does it take to train someone to make proper ugali, what is the variation in taste and texture even after the training. If we had the machine hata Lupita would not have issues making the same.

I mean you could as well say the building concrete mixers are a waste since you just need a casual laborer mixing the same.
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  | | Edit by user: Wednesday, September 23, 2015 2:06 PM | Reason: Not specified
sitaki.kujulikana
#27 Posted : Wednesday, September 23, 2015 2:09:42 PM
Rank: Veteran

Joined: 8/25/2012
Posts: 1,826
majimaji wrote:
Anti_Burglar wrote:
sitaki.kujulikana wrote:
Anti_Burglar wrote:
There was a time when Binyavanga Wainaina was speaking when he 'came out'. He was speaking about the same thing - about why we always have to be 'traditional'

Ati why we cannot 'add value' to potatoes and make crisps. As if eating potatoes as crisps is better than eating potatoes as mukimo.

These are the idlers in our midst.

Why want to fix what is not broken? Because Mzungu are doing it?

We are not referring to adding value but increasing efficiency.

For example the typical household chores take up a whole day and these are duties that would easily be compressed into a couple of hours.

The reason the ugali example comes up is due to the fact that the same is not a common meal in the west as it is especially in Kenya and thus the lack of ways to make preparing the same more efficient come into question.

Of course there are more examples like why would people especially in rural areas suffer when rivers dry up, while building dams is a technology even beavers have mastered.



Efficiency? In ugali cooking? Let's see:
1. Boil water
2. Add the flour
3. koroga
4. Pakua

Which step is inefficient and needs increased efficiency that the cooking machine can and will provide?


If there is a coffee maker machine in the office, why not an ugali maker?

@Anti_Burglar will say its just boiling water, adding coffee, and weka kwa ukombe.
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masukuma
#28 Posted : Wednesday, September 23, 2015 2:12:50 PM
Rank: Elder

Joined: 10/4/2006
Posts: 13,823
Location: Nairobi
by the way - the coffee maker you see in your office is a result of nearly 300 years of continuous improvement in addition to the fact that coffee is drunk worldwide...and it has a huge market in places with people who have higher disposable incomes... to my knowledge, the only people that consume ugali are the bantu populated areas of Africa (great lakes region and southern africa). Hata west africans don't eat it... create a business case for this market! Unakumbuka Bob Collymore's statement on Kenyan food? I suspect he had his eyes set on Ugali...
All Mushrooms are edible! Some Mushroom are only edible ONCE!
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sitaki.kujulikana
#29 Posted : Wednesday, September 23, 2015 2:13:30 PM
Rank: Veteran

Joined: 8/25/2012
Posts: 1,826
masukuma wrote:

...
Back to Ugali maker - who is this guy? Ama we are engaging in a science project whose monetization strategy involves throwing stuff onto a wall and seeing what sticks.

Rice cookers seem to be doing ok, at the end of the day any invention has risks of failing, even the car started like that, very few were willing to put aside the farasi.
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sitaki.kujulikana
#30 Posted : Wednesday, September 23, 2015 2:19:10 PM
Rank: Veteran

Joined: 8/25/2012
Posts: 1,826
masukuma wrote:
by the way - the coffee maker you see in your office is a result of nearly 300 years of continuous improvement in addition to the fact that coffee is drunk worldwide...and it has a huge market in places with people who have higher disposable incomes... to my knowledge, the only people that consume ugali are the bantu populated areas of Africa (great lakes region and southern africa). Hata west africans don't eat it... create a business case for this market! Unakumbuka Bob Collymore's statement on Kenyan food? I suspect he had his eyes set on Ugali...

I think worst case scenario, the Bantu people would still provide a decent market, that's roughly a population of around 100 - 150 m people.
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