Theory of the World
A personal archive of ideas, models, and perspectives on our complex world.
Perspective over time. Across disciplines. Beyond convention.
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Use a keyword, theme, title fragment, or idea to move beyond the newest essays and into the full body of work.
Featured Essays
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What Really Matters In Academia
The Quiet Contract A student submits a paragraph that sounds confident but cannot show where the claim came from.
Fast Growing Startups in Africa: What Matters Now
Financial M-Pesa Paystack (Nigeria) TopCheck (South Africa) Snapscan Paga Zoona Interswitch Wealth Migrate Riovic BitPesa Flutterwave Lendable Lidya Pula…
Understanding Hinton
Part of Understanding Hinton’s Capsule Networks Series: Part I: Intuition (you are reading it now) Part II: How Capsules Work Part III: Dynamic Routing…
Thriving on Recession
By Riaan Steenberg Can your business survive a recession? It is easy to forget that recessions have been happening since the beginning of time…
Project Managing the Start-up
Start-ups can gain a lot from project management methodologies and this article gives an outline of the main project management process that a start-up…
Rewriting South Africa’s National Narrative
Rewriting South Africa’s National Narrative By Dr Riaan Steenberg A country is partly governed by the story it tells about itself.
Reading Map
Choose a path.
This archive is not only chronological. It is a field guide to recurring questions about meaning, learning, leadership, enterprise, systems, and the work of becoming more capable.
Begin with the self
Start with the newly separated Theory of the World essays: identity, meaning, inner freedom, fear, and renewal.
Read the newest edge
Move into the most recent essays when you want the current signal and the latest public argument.
Enter the deep archive
Older essays are not background noise. They hold early versions of ideas about teams, systems, management, and personal agency.
Open a territory
Choose a larger field when you want breadth instead of a single next article.