A follow-up to Alpha Engineers Build Through Rejection – on persistence, local expertise, and the cost of ignoring battle-tested builders*
The appointment to Tonga Cable Ltd. Chairman wasn’t just recognition, it was validation of a truth I’ve been shouting into the wind for years: we have the skills locally, but our some of our leaders are still mesmerized by outside consultants with PowerPoints and promises.
This isn’t about ego. This is about efficiency, sustainability, and the staggering cost of perpetual ignorance.
The Consultant Industrial Complex
Walk into any government office, any major corporation, any development meeting in the Pacific, and you’ll find the same scene i.e. local Alpha Engineers with proven track records sitting in corners while imported consultants with zero contextual understanding lead the conversation. These consultants arrive with the same recycled solutions they’ve pitched from Lagos to Lima, completely oblivious to the unique challenges of island economies, cultural protocols, and infrastructure realities.
The result? Band-aid solutions that last exactly as long as the consultant’s contract. Three to five years later, we’re back to square one, writing the same project proposals, solving the same problems, because nobody listened to the people who actually live here, work here, and understand the intricate dynamics of Pacific communities.
I’ve watched this cycle repeat for decades. The same development partners offering the same “innovative” solutions that were cutting-edge in 2015. Meanwhile, local engineers like myself are building Pasifika.xyz, deploying Vyper Smart Contracts on Rootstock, contributing to Chainlink’s oracle solutions, competing in Hackathons, mentoring students, publishing on Hackernoon, and creating real, sustainable infrastructure that actually serves our people.
But when decision time comes? “Let’s bring in the experts.”
The GitHub Test
Here’s a challenge for every leader still falling for the consultant shuffle: Open GitHub. Compare portfolios.
Compare my contributions at github.com/EdwinLiavaa to the consultant you’re about to hire. Look at the commit history. Examine the real projects. Check the documentation. See who’s actually building versus who’s just talking about building.
The same test applies to any Alpha Engineer in your organization. We’re not hiding our work behind corporate firewalls or NDAs. Our code is open, our progress is transparent, our failures and successes are documented for the world to see.
Yet somehow, a consultant with a polished deck gets more credibility than an engineer with a proven deployment record.
The Context Imperative
No one knows our context better than us. This isn’t nationalism or isolation, it’s operational reality.
When I’m building blockchain infrastructure for Pacific Island communities, I’m not just coding smart contracts. I’m accounting for intermittent internet connectivity, cultural protocols around land ownership, the economics of remittance flows, the social dynamics of extended family structures, and the harsh realities of climate change adaptation.
A consultant flying in from Sydney or Singapore doesn’t understand why certain technical decisions that work perfectly in urban environments become complete disasters in island contexts. They don’t understand why a solution that seems elegant in theory becomes unusable when it conflicts with traditional governance structures.
But we do. We live it. We breathe it. We’ve been building solutions that work within these constraints for years.
The Stigma of Local Expertise
There’s a perverse psychology at play here, the idea that local expertise is somehow inferior to imported knowledge. If someone understands our context too well, they can’t possibly be sophisticated enough to provide world-class solutions.
This is colonial thinking dressed up as modern procurement practices.
The most advanced blockchain solutions, the most innovative Web3 applications, the most robust infrastructure projects, these are being built by people who intimately understand their deployment environment. Not by consultants who need three months just to understand the problem statement.
The True Cost of Deaf Ears
Every time a leader chooses external consultants over local Alpha Engineers, they’re not just wasting money, they’re perpetuating dependency. They’re sending a message that local talent isn’t valuable enough to trust with important decisions.
The cost isn’t just financial, it’s cultural, it’s psychological. It’s the message we send to the next generation of local Pacific Island builders i.e. “Your skills are good enough for maintenance, but not good enough for innovation.”
Meanwhile, the consultant returns to their home country with another case study about “digital transformation in the Pacific,” while we’re left maintaining systems we didn’t design, following processes we didn’t create, and explaining to our communities why the promised benefits never materialized.
The Alpha Engineer’s Response
So what do we do when our advice falls on deaf ears? When our portfolios are ignored in favor of polished presentations? When our battle-tested solutions are dismissed for theoretical frameworks?
We build anyway.
We build louder. We build more visibly. We build with such undeniable impact that even the most consultant obsessed leader can’t ignore the results.
That’s what Pasifika.xyz represents. That’s what my work with Chainlink and Rootstock demonstrates. That’s what the Tonga Cable Chairman appointment proves. We don’t wait for permission. We don’t seek approval. We build solutions that work, and we let the results speak.
A Challenge to Development Partners
To every development partner reading this i.e. if you genuinely want to help Pacific communities, listen to us first. Don’t arrive with pre-packaged solutions. Don’t assume your experience in other markets translates directly to our island contexts.
Partner with us. Learn from us. Fund us. But don’t replace us.
The most successful development projects in the Pacific have been collaborations, not impositions. They’ve been partnerships that elevated local expertise rather than sidelined it.
A Message to Leaders
To every leader still reaching for the consultant Rolodex i.e. if you’re still looking for external consultants to solve your problems: your Alpha Engineers are already here. We’re already building. We’re already solving problems. We’re already creating value.
The only question is whether you’ll recognize it before your competitors do.
Check our GitHub repositories. Visit our websites. Look at our deployment records. Compare our understanding of local contexts to the consultant’s PowerPoint slides.
Then ask yourself: why are you still looking elsewhere?
The Building Continues
My Google interview was enlightening not because of the outcome, but because of the confirmation it provided. While they were assessing whether I was a good fit for their infrastructure needs, I was already building infrastructure that serves my people directly.
The ADB blockchain consultancy opportunity, regardless of outcome, validates what local Alpha Engineers have been saying i.e. the future of Pacific development will be built on blockchain infrastructure, Web3 solutions, and decentralized systems that put communities in control of their own digital sovereignty.
But we don’t need institutional validation to keep building. We need leaders with the political will to recognize that the expertise they’re seeking already exists in their own backyard.
The Path Forward
Every rejection from leaders who prefer imported solutions over local expertise is actually a redirection toward something more important i.e. building systems that work with or without their approval.
While they’re conducting another consultant selection process, we’re deploying smart contracts. While they’re reviewing proposals, we’re training community members. While they’re debating frameworks, we’re solving problems.
The Pacific doesn’t need more consultants. It needs more leaders who recognize that the Alpha Engineers they’re ignoring today are the same ones who will be leading the transformation tomorrow.
To my fellow Alpha Engineers: keep building. Your work will speak louder than any consultant’s presentation. Your results will outlast any contract. Your understanding of local contexts will prove more valuable than any imported framework.
The noise of rejection is temporary. The signal of consistent building is permanent.
Let them bring in the consultants. We’ll be here when the band-aid solutions fail, ready to build something that actually works. Ready to build something that lasts. Ready to build something that serves our people instead of serving someone else’s portfolio.
The ascension continues. The destination remains clear. And every deaf ear just gives us more reason to build louder.
Let’s Go!
You can follow me and subscribe to my newsletter here on Hackernoon or here on my personal website liavaa.space and on GitHub github.com/EdwinLiavaa.
