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[The Spearhead @Spearhead_Af]

The AI Illusion: Productivity Without Learning

The Spearhead’s Kangmwa Gofwen examines the hidden trade-offs of generative AI adoption in education. Drawing on studies showing that AI boosts short-term homework scores while severely degrading long-term exam performance, this report explores how outsourcing basic tasks creates a dangerous illusion of competence at the expense of genuine learning.

[so @soreal60]

@UnkleAyo This is too real, then you notice the 2% offer off the shelf isn’t working at selfcheck out

[so @soreal60]

@Yabgmi_ Make I block this idiot first

[MRR ADDY  @vibewithmraddy]

I no fit hate this Man💯🧏🏾

[Greg Lunt @GregLuntX]

If you're wondering why $QNT price pumped 3x this week, this list is probably a good place to start ↓↓

• Quant was just chosen to build the next generation of US bank money. The Clearing House, owned by 25 major US banks like Chase, Bank of America, HSBC, and Citi settle more than $2 trillion per day and selected Quant to connect its new on-chain money network.

• Quant is now powering the largest banks in the UK. Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Santander and others are now executing live customer transactions on infrastructure built by Quant.

• Quant is directly integrated into Murex’s MX.3 platform. MX.3 is the financial software engine powering 65 of the world's 100 largest banks, and Quant gives them crypto-ready infrastructure without requiring them to rewrite existing infrastructure.

• Oracle has put Quant inside its enterprise digital-asset stack. One of the world's largest enterprise software companies has certified Overledger to provide cross-ledger orchestration for settling transactions across different ledgers and off-chain databases.

• Quant is shaping the standards that will govern value movement across the internet. SATP is designed to let digital assets move safely between separate networks, and the protocol is now in the IETF's final community-review stage before a decision on publication.

• Quant has built technology for the Bank for International Settlements and the Bank of England. Project Rosalind tested 33 API functions and 30+ real-world use cases, with Quant supplying blockchain infrastructure, smart contracts and interoperability.

• The European Central Bank picked Quant to help experiment with the Digital Euro. Quant is testing how programmable payments could work directly with central-bank digital money, putting it inside one of Europe’s most important future payments projects.

• Quant has already integrated with Nexi’s European payments infrastructure. The underlying SIA network spans 580 nodes across 208,000+ km of fiber, connecting banks, payment providers, and financial institutions across Europe.

• Quant has been working on blockchain infrastructure spanning 12 countries across Latin America. The LACChain network gives Quant exposure to cross-border payments, tokenized money and interoperability across multiple national markets.

• Quant has a direct route into Japan’s banking system through Dentsu Soken. Dentsu Soken builds mission-critical systems tied to BOJNET, SWIFT, CLS, internet banking, and core banking, and the partnership includes a joint go-to-market plan for Japanese banks.

• Quant has been granted multiple patents across the US, Europe, Japan, and China. This gives Quant a defensible IP position in one of the hardest problems in digital finance — enterprise-grade multi-ledger technology.

• Quant’s founder helped launch the ISO standard for blockchain and distributed ledger technology. Gilbert Verdian was instrumental in establishing ISO/TC 307, the international committee for blockchain and distributed ledger standards, going on to lead its interoperability working group.

• Quant isn't betting the company on just one product. Overledger, Quant Flow, PayScript, QuantNet, and Fusion give it multiple products around interoperability, programmable money, payments, and multi-network settlement.

• Gilbert was working on this problem before most people had even heard the word “interoperability.” Before Quant, he spent 20+ years in cybersecurity and senior technology roles across the Federal Reserve, Bank of England, HM Treasury, Mastercard, PricewaterhouseCoopers, HSBC, Ernst & Young, and other major institutions.

• $QNT is unusually scarce for an asset servicing a global market. Its maximum supply is just 14.88 million tokens, giving it one of the tightest supply profiles in large-cap crypto. As we've seen this week, when demand spikes, upward moves can be violent.

• Staking could create an even more powerful supply-and-demand loop. Likely arriving in 2027, Quant's staking mechanism could see millions of $QNT tokens locked away, while participants earn rewards and growing network usage competes for the same fixed supply.

• All of this is only what we're allowed to see. Quant is built to operate behind the scenes as white-label infrastructure; we actually have no idea how many more integrations are already live, being tested, or sitting in the pipeline waiting to be announced.

So when people ask me why $QNT suddenly ran this hard this week, I think they're asking the wrong question.

The better question is why the market ignored all of this evidence for so long.

[so @soreal60]

@Itz_SPEEDO Where to buy

[so @soreal60]

@0xBenscrypto @bankrbot 0x7B09B04fB9d83b4c264862eF1057eA424313729B

[so @soreal60]

@basedotmeme @KibiBot 0x7B09B04fB9d83b4c264862eF1057eA424313729B

[so @soreal60]

@jamiuxxvi E first say the guy cook make e no clock say e still Dey come for the whole family😭

[so @soreal60]

@on3boi_1 I no even sabi say na 0xjoshy guy 🤣
Abeg make e refund my $2

[so @soreal60]

@Drbills2026 Nothing like insurance 😭

[so @soreal60]

@GNFSULTAN Once upon a time on x you could simply block people from their tweets alone

[so @soreal60]

@pinkychuwu

[so @soreal60]

RT @UnkleAyo: In one lighthearted conversation -

we covered the biology to several tumors, dabbled into geopolitics, compared the writing…

[Toby.win @0xT0by]

man this vibecoding thing has gotten insane

[Kolade Afolabi @koladeafolabi20]

I feel like contributing to this conversation.

Specifically, quoting this post is me trying to quote the thread.

I purposely stay off such conversations because I believe in nuance. Most importantly, no nation is benevolent; every nation is after its own self-interest.

So here is what I believe:
1. I do believe that a weaker West can and should indeed benefit African nations. Not because conspiracy theories are my thing, but it's simply due to the liquidity theory of money.

Money doesn't come from thin air; it rotates from one place to the other. There was a time Rome was the dominant power that had the best schools, the best economy, etc. It was a hegemon, and it attracted capital. When Rome fell, for a period of time, it was unclear which Empire would take the crown of the hegemon.

Some point to the Byzantine Empire and later the Ottoman Empire, then the Portuguese and Dutch. Hegemony has historically been attributed regionally, and various Empires have taken that crown.

But the USA has proved different. Its hegemony wasn't just regional; it has gained global hegemony, and this isn't an anomaly. After World War II, Europe and Britain were basically broke.

USA wasn't; it had already industrialized and had a geographic advantage by being unscathed from the war. But that wasn't its moat. What went further to cement America's might was the execution of the Marshall plan that helped Europe and many Asian economies rebuild their economies.

But it came at a cost; you had to buy American tools. It worked.

The ability for the USA to create what I call a self-sustaining venture model and control the narrative makes it a global hegemon.

Take note of that line of mine; I will come back to it.

Now the question is, does it directly suppress these nations?

No, of course, not directly. But indirectly, it will, especially if you intend to be as powerful as the USA. Let's look at Europe, Japan, and China.

EUROPE: Thanks to the Marshall Plan, Europe was rebuilt.

This is one of the clearest signals that Western "support" or whatever you might call it isn't always a negative. It stopped the humanitarian and economic crisis, formed a foundation for the European Union, and many European countries posted stellar GDP growth.

BUT, was it solely the Marshall Plan that made Europe develop? No. Europe already possessed a highly skilled workforce and deep industrial knowledge; they just lacked the raw materials and stable cash flow to unlock it.

The Marshall Plan acted less like building a new engine from scratch, and more like providing the spark plug and fuel to get an existing, highly advanced engine roaring back to life.

THE CATCH: Yes, Europe developed, but it hasn't rivalled the USA when it comes to development. European economies are now stalling, less prosperous, and battling economic downturns.

Though a lot of factors can be attributed, the same way we can't attribute its rise solely to the USA's Marshall Plan, we can also postulate that the easy times have yielded overreliance on the USA. This is dangerous because the USA and the rest of the world are beginning to tilt the post world war 2 world order.

Basically, the USA helped Europe. But it has systematically, knowingly or unknowingly, ensured that European nations (including Britain) aren't as powerful as it.

Again, take note of that line.

JAPAN: Japan was also a direct beneficiary of Western support after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

It not only bombed but forced Japan to adopt a new constitution containing a clause where Japan permanently renounced war and the maintenance of "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential."

To keep Japan safe from the Soviet Union during the Cold War without letting it rebuild its own military, the US signed a pact. The US would guarantee Japan's defense, but in exchange, Japan had to host permanent US military bases.

Could Japan refuse? Of course not. USA had the guns; they've always had them.

All this created a dynamic where Japan could build a Self-Defense Force for basic domestic policing, but remained entirely dependent on the US for global power projection.

So, Japan actually did rebuild, becoming a dominant player and an influential nation. But clearly, as one can see, this has bred a cycle of overdependence and overreliance.

Again, we can help you, but you mustn't be as powerful as us.

So militarily, Japan's power is contained; what about economically? Walk with me:

At one point, Japan became so dominant that the Nikkei225 (Japan's benchmark stock index) was the No. 1 in the world and Japan's economy became robust, rivalling the US in global trade.

The US stepped in very stealthily; they basically led Japan on, creating its economic bubble.

Through the Plaza Accord (1985), the US, Japan, and European allies signed an agreement to artificially devalue the US dollar.

That sounded good, but this radically strengthened the Japanese yen, creating a huge problem.

Japan (an export-oriented economy) saw its exports instantly become much more expensive globally, slowing down its massive trade advantage.

Japanese economists warned about this, but the USA basically had the guns.

Japanese leaders believed their factories were so efficient, their technology so superior, and their work ethic so unmatched that they could survive a stronger currency.

In response, the central bank slashed interest rates to near zero, hoping this would stimulate production. But no, the money flooded property and the stock market, creating an unavoidable bubble that eventually burst.

Again, you can be developed, but you mustn't be as powerful as us. You must always be second to us; this is the way of the USA. It's not a conspiracy; it is fact.

CHINA: the USA played a role in assisting China, hoping that it would become rich by acting as the West's cheap assembly line.

And that as it grew wealthy, it would naturally adopt Western capitalism, property laws, and eventually, democracy.

But China flipped the script. They took the wealth, maintained absolute state control over their economy, eventually tilted less critical sectors toward the populace through state-led capitalism, built a world-class military, and forced Western companies to hand over proprietary technology in exchange for market access.

By the time Washington realized China wasn't going to liberalize, Beijing had already become the indispensable hub of global manufacturing.

And as opposed to Japan, the USA didn't have the guns over them per se. The first thing China did was to develop its military capacity early on.

China also made heavy investments in education, the military, and population control. It also learnt from Trump 1.0.

Unlike Japan, China also has leverage. Refining capacity of most of the world's critical minerals is concentrated in China and owned by the state. It's also the world's factory.

But does this mean that total alienation from the West is what made China what it is? The answer is no. In fact, both Empires are co-dependent on each other, sharing a symbiotic relationship.

1. CURRENCY: The US Dollar isn't going anywhere as the World's reserve currency. And the economic nature of the two countries is clearly by design and symbiotic.

China knows this. Though the trending headline is that it has aggressively reduced its holdings of US Treasury to $650billion, down from a record $1.3trillion, it still holds a MASSIVE war chest of $ 3.4 trillion as foreign reserves MOSTLY denominated in US dollars.

To avoid overdependency, certain measures are being taken. For example, converting some of it to physical gold. Another one is maintaining a shadow system, secretly hoarding their holdings using overseas systems that don't reflect on the Fed's balance sheet.

My suspicion is Hong Kong, not classified as "mainland China" but a "proxy" state in my books, as it blends aspects of Western Capitalism such as financial markets and a more open economy.

This nature of holding US dollars, either directly through debt and foreign reserves or indirectly, also aids China in having a relatively undervalued currency, avoiding the trap that the US led Japan into.

An undervalued currency keeps making its exports attractive. Which is a win-win.

China wishes to regulate its currency, so it's not in its best interest for the yuan to be a reserve currency. Meanwhile, it is pursuing what is called a petro yuan. Countries that wish to bypass US sanctions, like Russia, can buy goods from China, and China pays in Yuan.

Instead of keeping the Yuan, the exporting country immediately takes that cash to the Shanghai Gold Exchange and converts the Yuan into physical gold bullion.

They can then store the gold in their reserves, completely bypassing the dollar. Hence, China is actively seeking to use the Yuan as a settlement currency, but not as a reserve currency

2. AMERICA POSSESSES THE LARGEST CONSUMER MARKET WHILE CHINA IS THE WORLD'S FACTORY: Look, no matter how both countries try to downplay it, this relationship persists. In fact, China is recording massive trade surpluses with the USA.

On one hand, Western companies often use Chinese factories or Chinese raw materials, breeding a cycle of dependency. Hence, trade wars never last.

3. CAPITAL MARKETS VS TRADE GIANT: The nature of the USA makes it embrace robust capital markets with a total capitalization of 5x that of China's.

This is because American companies operate a capitalist structure, constantly chasing rewarding shareholder value as opposed to Chinese companies, in which fierce competition forces many to keep slashing prices.

Consumers smile, shareholders don't. Even though, of late, China's stock market has experienced a rebound thanks to falling property prices. Over the long term, the boss is clear.

Additionally, almost anyone globally can participate in America's market as opposed to China's relatively closed market.

All these are why, to an investor, Tesla stock is a more attractive option than BYD, though BYD might be cheaper and "better".

However, in global trade, China clearly dominates, with the latest estimates placing turnover at $3.8trillion

Concerning financial markets, Hong Kong, which is often not included when experts refer to "mainland China," boasts a bustling capital market serving as a route for many Chinese companies that seek foreign capital, acting as a bridge between state control and capitalism.

Clearly, even though one can say the USA "assisted" China, the truth is China made significant investments in education, the military, and infrastructure.

If China intended to be a lesser power than the US, the US mightn't have bothered. When the US realized China was getting more powerful than it, it intended to pull levers. But here's the thing:

1. When many people see China, they think they are the new kid on the block. The truth is China has ALWAYS been the grandpa. It is a 3000 year old civilization and has hosted empires in the past. The 100 years of humiliation that led to abundance of poverty, etc., were not the norm. It has always been a mighty civilization and a relatively prosperous nation.

To some, this is why they admire America even more. It is just 250 years old and was able to establish hegemony in just 150 years.

Hence, China has been dominant, but hegemony isn't its thing, and it never will be. Even when China relates to other nations, it tends to view them as equals.

THE DECLINE OF HEGEMONY AND THE WAY FORWARD FOR AFRICA

The lesson?
1. We will need "assistance" from the West: You can frame the assistance in any way you wish, but behaving as if one should completely reject the West isn't the way to go.

Basically, most developing nations in downturns accepted the West's assistance. The most important thing isn't accepting; it is what you use the assistance to do.

2. Know your goal: do you want to just be a developed nation or do you want to be more powerful than the West? China and many countries have recognized and made peace with their objectives early on.

If all you want is the first, kudos; the road might be shorter. If what you want is the latter, phew.

The thing, however, is that what you want mightn't matter as much. It's what the West wants. Does the West view this nation as a threat with the tendency of becoming more powerful than it?

3. Know your Leverage: remember, the US is a hegemon/world power. It has always wanted control and influence. Africa HAS leverage. As the West looks for alternatives to China for critical minerals, nations like Congo, South Africa, and Zambia hold leverage in that aspect. Africa has the world's largest consumer market and sits in the way of global shipping routes.

4. Accept your Limitation: We don't have the guns. I repeat, we do not have the guns, so we cannot move like China for now, but we can move like China of then. I will be blunt. We have no choice but to accept the "assistance" and plan on. But ... like I have said, we should use the assistance to do something.

This requires sensible, visionary leaders AND nationalist oligarchs. One can't go without the other.

5. Overdependence is a cancer: to avoid overdependence, you need to use the "assistance" well. It's why I constantly say we have learnt nothing from aid and tilt toward the private sector.

Because investors in the private sector are profit-oriented, it forces people to actually do something as opposed to simply collecting aid.

We need to avoid overdependence and build industrial capacity.

6. Building Industrial Capacity but NOT in the Way Many Think: When you're just starting, you can't do without some of these foreign systems, whether it is their capital or some bit of their infrastructure.

Over time, these critical aspects need to be managed by local stakeholders.

Also, mere industrialisation doesn't result in prosperity. Due to technology, the nature of industrialization is tilting. One must actively incorporate tech in processes while utilizing competitive advantage.

I recently saw the news that Dangote has replaced the USA as Europe's major jet fuel supplier and was completely stunned. Imagine if this model can be replicated across sectors. It's why I insist that industrialization is necessary, but through the angle of technology and competitive advantage.

IN CONCLUSION, at the end of the day, global geopolitics is a game of leverage, not emotion. It is a classic "Game of Thrones". The US isn't inherently "evil" for protecting its number-one spot, nor is China a saint for trading on different terms. Every empire is simply running its own self-sustaining venture model.

Everybody is a player and businessman, making money from the constant flow of liquidity.

For Africa, the lesson from Europe, Japan, and China is crystal clear: Support without leverage is just a trap waiting to snap shut. If you rely on foreign aid to build your house, the landlord will always dictate the house rules.

We don't have the military power to force our way to the top of the global order right now, but we don't need to. We just need to play the board like the China of old. That means accepting foreign capital and partnerships where necessary, but aggressively utilizing that liquidity to fund our own internal infrastructure, education, military, tech ecosystems, and domestic capabilities.

The Dangote refinery overtaking the US as Europe’s top jet fuel supplier isn't just a win for Nigeria; it is a structural proof of concept. It proves that when local, nationalist capital marries industrial technology and raw competitive advantage, we can shift global trade flows and channel capital.

On my end, I'm very big on channeling capital, either through Foreign Portfolio Investments (FPIs) through the capital market or Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) that aid job creation.

They are all investments, NOT free money/aid. Aid should be disliked; we have learnt nothing from aid.

I have a problem with many "hyper-capitalists" and "Pan-Africanists" on this platform due to their extreme views, thinking one is more benevolent than the other.

In Game of Thrones, Daenerys Targayen said something profound of the various houses,

"Lannister, Targaryen, Baratheon, Stark, Tyrell... they're all just spokes on a wheel. This one's on top, then that one's on top, and on and on it spins, crushing those on the ground."

We need to stop looking at the West or East as either saviors or villains. They are market participants pursuing their self-interest.

It particularly reminds me of this quote from Tyrion; he is one man who indeed understood the only game that mattered,

"I trust their self-interest. They're trustworthy if they're convinced that working with me is in their self-interest."

If we back our visionary private-sector builders, invest in education, champion leadership, secure our supply chains of critical minerals, and build technology directly into our core industries, we transform from a continent whose affairs are "managed" by outsiders into an indispensable global player that the rest of the world has no choice but to respect.

In addition to building their own models and finding what works for them, the UK learnt from the Portuguese, America learnt from the UK, while China learnt from America.

We should look further East than West, and flip the script. Not in a bid to compare; for China can be qualified as our great grandpa. But simply because it developed at an identical time under the reins of the same players.

This is a picture of China's Xi Jinping in the USA, on a trip to study how US farmers handled crop production, livestock, and modern animal feed processing in the midst of China's economic reforms.

I will forever be a learner.

[#LandIsNotProperty Mwalimu Wandia @wmnjoya]

I completely disagree and I have published to that effect, with receipts from the so called African cultures.

I think, Spearhead, you need to be careful about arguments from Africans in former settler colonies. We fell hook line and sinker for justifying everything in the name of "African culture," because that's what the British taught us to do. Polygamy isn't unique to Africa, neither is its success or, most of the time, chaos. And that's what I argue in my paper. There are also certain socio-economic factors to be considered like the fact that two thirds of the Africans exported to the Americas as forced labor were men. How does she think African societies made up for the deficit?

That polygamist show was a corporate psyop. Who controls media in Africa? Is it us? And when this show became popular at the time when SA was expelling immigrants.

Let's exercise more care when it comes to gender and entertainment in Africa. Imperialism knows that it's the one area in which Africans are very weak in their geopolitical analysis.

https://t.co/qK9ZSGAtCL

[so @soreal60]

@Spearhead_Af Now this what should be taught in schools

[so @soreal60]

@DiceyPrince_ @FELiXX7000 @Investor1436866 @beri_grizou With reflex o, before police enter your matter 😂👍🏾

[so @soreal60]

@FELiXX7000 @Investor1436866 @beri_grizou Nothing like separate ways for saner climate, 2 portion of beans for him 👍🏾

[Prince ⚓ @DiceyPrince_]

@beri_grizou Nigeria is such a messed up place, because here in the USA, this is a serious crime. He would do jail for a long time. It’s called quid-pro-quo and the EEOC will have his behind.