Technolandy

Day 110a (of 2025/26) #BlackHistoryMonth book review – The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind by William Kamkwamba

I first heard the name William Kamkwamba via a TEDtalk on his wind turbine. I had missed that he did a memoir that honestly feels like it would make a fabulous graphic novel… 

I do appreciate at a time where more education-social-media is pushing back on exploratory learning, it is indeed through curiosity (and a goal) that knowledge and skills are gained via trial and error… sure, explicit direct instruction may have made it easier (thinking about the radio) but sometimes internal questions can drive us forward more than a sage-on-the-stage. 

Finding answers vs being told them…aka “reverse engineering”

Love the metaphor of this shared saying: when you go to see the lake, you also see the hippos. 

Profound share on famine – and description how hunger disrupts learning… in a way no school punishment can overcome…

And an apt observation: where was Google when I needed it. 

This autobiography unfolds as a collection of shared stories and memories about a young inventor following an inquiry… delightful at times, yet some shares that are hard to read when we consider