General Samᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠ

This is why I've backed the horse - @PeterObi .

@asemota 7th try

I got it on the fourth try.

Instead of watching a 2-hour movie, watch this Claude FULL COURSE (Build & Automate Anything):

Music is life. Art is the soul of our existence.

Uncle Femi's compound in Shomolu had one unusual feature .. A long wooden bench by the entrance gate. It wasn't there for security, nor decoration. Every evening around 7pm, Uncle Femi would come out, sit on that bench, and greet everyone coming in. "Welcome." "How was your day?" "Hope you had a good one." At first, new tenants found it awkward. After a long day in Lagos, the last thing you want is a conversation. Some would rush past with forced smiles. But Uncle Femi never stopped. Slowly, something changed. People began to slow down. Sit for just two minutes. Those two minutes would turn into small conversations. Then laughter. Then familiarity. Then good vibes. Soon, the bench became a meeting point. A banker discussing with a tailor. A student asking a Nurse for advice. Someone sharing food. Someone borrowing charger. Nothing pre-planned, just people existing together. Then one evening, Uncle Femi didn't come out. 7pm passed. The bench was empty. Tenants noticed, but everyone assumed he was resting. By 8pm, one woman said: "Has anyone seen Uncle Femi today?" Silence. Another tenant mentioned he hadn't opened his door since morning. Something felt wrong. For a moment, everyone hesitated. Then one of them stood up. "Let's check." They knocked. No response. The hesitation broke. Within minutes, five people were at his door. They called his name, louder this time. Still nothing. They forced the door open. Uncle Femi was inside, lying on the floor, weak, barely conscious. Everything moved fast after that. Someone called for a car. Another grabbed water. Someone stayed by his side, talking to him, keeping him awake. They took him to the hospital. Uncle Femi survived. If that bench didn't exist, who knows what might have happened to Uncle Femi? If those small daily conversations never happened, it would have been a quiet death for Uncle Femi. In many modern apartments, especially in busy places like Lagos, people live side by side but don't actually know each other. Everyone is behind doors, headphones in, minding their business to the extreme. Let us care!Let us be present! Let us bring back community!

So who forgot to let us know that in 1868 Dr. James Beale Horton told us who really wrote the Igbo Bible in both the Isuama and Central dialect? Likewise, Frederick Schon, Captain William Allen, etc in 1841, 1842 equally told us who was really the one converting the Igbo leaders of that time. J.C. Taylor wrote both the Central and Isuama Bible. Simon Jonas was the one converting the Igbo leaders of that time. Both Taylor and Simon were Igbos. All that was acredited to Ajayi Crowther was literally just lies. Ajayi was nothing more than their supervisor whom credited himself their work. We allowed Lagos-Ibadan propaganda media to tell our story for too long. SMH

In this AI race, especially image & video gen; one platform that gets overlooked so often is @AIatMeta. I've just been blown away. It's very impressive the quality of the images and videos, and the fact that the tokens are free.

Pewbeam is live 🎉 This was just a dream, a dream I didn’t even know was possible—but I decided to pursue it anyway. Today, that dream is now a reality. We have a desktop app (Windows and macOS—this weekend) that can do all of this and even more. Over the last six months, I’ve pushed myself and my team hard, and I’ve seen people become hopeful and genuinely blessed by this product. I’ve received strong support from pastors, church members, techies, and several media houses and reporters. It has been a great honor to spend myself on something worthwhile. We’ve built an AI-native presentation app that displays relevant scriptures on screen in under 80 ms, without needing a volunteer. We’re starting with scriptures, but we’re growing into a comprehensive presentation software, with slides launching next month. From testing @pewbeam_ai in churches over the last four weeks, pastors have been able to focus on what matters instead of juggling or micromanaging the media team while preaching. Church members have been able to follow their pastor’s references in real time and take better notes. In the words of a member from one of the test churches: “Pewbeam changed the way I follow sermons in church completely.” This is the kind of impact I see Pewbeam having on people’s faith and on how church and worship are done. Pewbeam’s mission is to ensure the Church is not left behind in the AI era. We’re starting with this application, with many more to come in the next few months. We’ll keep working with stakeholders in the Christian faith, collect feedback, and build tools that better support discipleship. And unlike previous waves of technology, I believe we can be among the first movers in this AI revolution. With all that said, the final build of the app is ready, and we’re launching for public download on February 25, 2026. The app has a generous free tier for small churches and fellowships, and a paid plan (location-based pricing) that unlocks unlimited access to all features. If you’ve been following this journey, I appreciate you, and I assure you it will be worth it. Please download, subscribe, and use in your church.

@asemota @Ace_KYD I think, everyday I use Claude, there's this minute joy I feel, I mean, it just keeps getting good with every new update. My work has never been this easy. Gemini & Claude, nah, these guys have made building and working, way easier.

@Ace_KYD Claude Pro, Gemini, Lovable, Replit.

Which AI subscriptions are you paying for right now?

I always think of Big Chief's @asemota exposé on buying underperforming banks around the world, and turning them around. Oh well, it won't be a dream for long.

I ordered an Opay card, I opted for doorstep delivery and paid for it. But their agent is telling me to come to their office to pick up, or I should come to somewhere I would enter bike to, to collect it. Why then did I pay for doorstep delivery? I told them I paid for dsd, and I would only come to pick up if they paid for my tfare or they would make a refund. They haven't called me since then, I called them, and they did not answer. Now my card will be returned back to their main office. @OPay_NG

My heart breaks as I type this, please repost this so we can give awareness and massive support to Daniel. PS: every information being shared is only shared with permission from his direct family members acting in his interest. As I visited Ogun State today, a young, promising young man was brought to my attention who is currently battling with the jaws of death. He has been diagnosed of brain tumor, and months ago he started treatment but in the course of treatment, he could no longer afford it due to heavy financial constraints on him and his family members. The tumor as shown in the MRI result has created a mass effect affecting key parts of his brain, including his eyes, he’s currently unable to see now. So far, he’s been to both public and private hospitals for treatment. Treatment initially started but due to cost and financial constraints, the family, having raised over 5 million naira for his treatment, could not keep up, and had no other choice than to take him back home. On examination, I realized that his urethral catheter had been left unchanged for close to one month, as real time evidence of lack of funds to provide care. I immediately had to purchase new catheter with urine bag and replaced it myself in preparation for us trying to get him back to a hospital that can adequately care for him. There are already signs of complications like Urinary Tract Infection based on my clinical review. His nasogastric tube has been replaced too and I also spoke with the Doctor on ground as well who is trying to help in every possible way. No one should suffer like this. Right now, based on my own review, our best line of action is to get Daniel back to the hospital system for urgent stabilization, possible placement of a cranial shunt to drain the excess cerebrospinal fluid, and prepare/ optimize him for a brain surgery. A FBC, Urinalysis, Electrolyte, Urea and Creatinine had been ordered today. We are hoping to raise 15 million naira, but every single naira counts. Here’s how you can help Daniel. 1. Donate to help Daniel get back to the hospital system so he can afford the care he needs (Intensive Neurosurgical care). To track our donations, please make a bank transfer to FCMB 4107700013 Olawale Ogunlana PS. The status of this account will be shared transparently on a daily basis on this platform. 2. Repost this message to your timeline 3. Say a kind prayer for Daniel in the comment section. Please, @the_beardedsina @Wizarab10 @maxvayshia @oku_yungx @ogshia @HenshawKate and every of my well meaning colleagues and community members, please help me raise this. Your kindness to Daniel is a gift to yourself being paid forward. Nothing is too small to save him. Thank you all and God bless you.

Pls this Lagos has been doing this for about 139 days. If all you can do is RETWEET, pls just retweet 🙏🏿 She tweets about her dad everyday.

This is a super longshot; back in 2000/2001, a gentleman taught me Economics at St. Patrick’s College, Calabar. He was a corps member and his name is “Olukayode.” I am trying to reconnect with him. Unfortunately, I don’t remember his surname. X, do your thing.

Faze was the first ever Nigerian artist to hit platinum sales with his first three albums • Faze Alone • Independent • Originality You see that Originality album, that was the best album in Nigeria in 2006 Before the release date, it already went platinum distribution That album was a banger • Kolomental • Kpokpodikpo • Letter To My Brother • Tattoo Girls • Loving You Everyday And many more F A Z E

I asked Claude to look at startups.rip the site with details of YCombinator startups that didn't make it and this was what it found: Here's what stands out when you look across the graveyard on startups.rip, combined with the broader failure research: 1. Premature platform ambition — winning a niche, then abandoning it Posterous is the clearest example: it launched with a genuinely elegant premise, drove 30% month-over-month growth, and hit 15 million monthly visitors — then abandoned its winning position to fight a social media war it was never built for. Feature accumulation eroded the product's clarity. By March 2012, monthly visitors had collapsed from 15 million to 1.33 million. This pattern — find a sharp edge, then blunt it chasing a bigger vision — recurs constantly across the list. 2. Timing mismatch (too early, not too wrong) Loopt is the canonical case: Sam Altman built what we now take for granted in apps like Google Maps, Life360, and Find My — but in 2008 the smartphone ecosystem, social norms around location sharing, and carrier infrastructure weren't ready. The idea was right; the moment was wrong. Looking at the startups.rip list, this appears repeatedly in the community/social cluster — Openland, Allo, Tress, Quest — products that might have found audiences at different points in the cycle but launched into a market not yet ready or already saturated. 3. The "feature, not a company" problem — especially brutal in the AI wave The W22–S23 cohort on the list is telling: Flike, Parabolic, Fabius, CoffeeAI, Dialect, Mercator, Demo Gorilla — almost all AI-wrapper companies doing one thing (AI sales emails, AI customer support, AI outreach, AI forms). When ChatGPT can do 80% of what your product does for $20/month, your margin for differentiation becomes razor-thin. These companies weren't solving hard problems — they were building thin layers on top of foundational models that rapidly caught up with them. 4. Marketplace leakage — the disintermediation trap Tutorspree's business model had a structural flaw baked in: once a tutor and student connected on the platform, nothing stopped them from cutting Tutorspree out of the transaction. The company was taking 50% of tutor fees, giving both sides a massive incentive to bypass it. This same trap hit many marketplace plays on the list — Gigster, The Muse, Creative Market — where the platform creates the match but can't hold the relationship. 5. Regulatory/compliance exposure in regulated industries Call9 (healthcare at nursing facilities), LendUp (predatory lending regulations), Argovox (healthcare billing), SimpleCitizen (immigration) — companies operating in highly regulated spaces ran into the same wall. They built genuine utility but couldn't survive the compliance overhead, regulatory shifts, or the cost of becoming legitimate at scale. LendUp in particular is interesting: it raised significant capital on a "socially responsible" fintech mission but ultimately ran afoul of the CFPB for the very lending practices it claimed to be reforming. 6. Over-dependence on a single acquisition channel Tutorspree was almost entirely dependent on Google search traffic for new student acquisition — any algorithm change could significantly reduce their traffic and in return their users. As resources dwindled and the traffic dried up, there was no alternative funnel to fall back on. This single-channel dependency is a recurring killer across the list, especially for consumer and marketplace plays. 7. The acqui-hire as soft failure — talent over traction A large chunk of the "Acquired" column on startups.rip aren't real exits — they're acqui-hires: Twitter buying Posterous for the Garry Tan/Sachin Agarwal team, Apple absorbing Raven Tech, Google absorbing Bump. About 40% of YC startups ultimately achieve an exit, but a significant portion of those are acqui-hires with very small outcomes for early investors. The acqui-hire is the startup world's equivalent of a graceful funeral — the company dies but the founders land softly, which obscures how common actual failure really is. 8. Community/social products without cold-start solutions Looking at the community cluster — Openland, Allo, Tress, BlackOakTV, Quest — none found a way to solve the cold-start problem. A community product is worthless to user #1 and only marginally useful to user #100. None of these had the distribution engine, the density play, or the content moat needed to get over that hump. At YC's early stage, companies fail because they give up or the founders don't get along, and another big reason is the company is not making what people really want. In the community sector specifically, founders often build for a demographic they believe in (Black women's hair care, neighboring families, audio career advice) without finding a sustainable engine for growth. 9. The "idea whose time came and went" — wave mistiming Escher Reality (AR backends, 2017), NeoWize (ML algorithms), Pit.AI (AI for investing), CrowdAI (vision AI) — these companies were building on technology waves that either didn't materialize at the expected pace or got absorbed by the foundational layer providers (Apple ARKit eating Escher Reality, for instance). They weren't wrong about the technology, but the value accrued to the platform, not the middleware. The meta-pattern across all of it What startups.rip reveals most starkly is that YC's selection process gets founders in the door but doesn't solve the three things that actually kill companies: finding a defensible position (not just a clever insight), building a business model with structural integrity, and surviving long enough for the market to catch up to the idea. Most of the dead companies on that list had real ideas — some of the ideas are now worth billions in other hands. The gap between insight and execution, between timing and readiness, between building something people want and building something that sustains itself financially — that's where the graveyard fills up.

Dear Mr. President, I’ve been thinking about this in the shower and I have a plan. The problem isn’t Iran. It’s the ship crews. These are my people. Merchant Mariners are an odd lot. “Show some guts” doesn’t work because these guys have crossed the North Atlantic in winter. They already know what they’ve got. We are a practical lot. Common sense, as you often say. So avenging our deaths by carpet bombing Iran, while a a generous token, doesn’t do much to motivate us. Dead is dead. You can’t collect on a life insurance policy if the underwriter at Lloyd’s has TDS, and most of them do. Plus those supertanker fires are nasty. Think AOC when she’s as old as Pelosi. Our phrase is Acta Non Verba. Actions, not words. So someone will have to sail through first. And it’s not enough to sail with AIS off under the cover of dark. Someone has to sail in broad daylight with an enormous American flag streaming over the stern. The biggest flag you’ve ever seen. Huge. It’s a show of flag exercise so we want something big. Step one: you need a Captain. Someone kinda well known. Handsome, ideally, a man of faith of course, debonair would be nice but we can work with what we’ve got. Here’s what I’ll do. I’m heading to the big CMA conference tomorrow and will recruit a crew. I’m a little rusty but a great crew can compensate for a lot of command failures. Ask any Admiral. My license needs to be renewed, and I’ll need someone to waive all those stupid classes the UN’s @IMOHQ wants me to take. Seven courses, Mr. President. To do the same job I’ve been doing for 30 years. Pete is a good judge of character, he can vouch for me. A note from the President to Admiral Lundy should do. Might be the fastest the Coast Guard has ever moved on anything. But I need a just a few small things in return. First, I need a SEAL team or equivalent. Just a small platoon but preferably one of those tier one guys if available. They can’t shoot down drones or anything, but they absolutely can tell me to man up when I inevitably say “WTF was I thinking.” Pete, if you’re reading this, feel free to send your best. I promise I will not make them sit through a PowerPoint. Also, I fully expect at least one Admiral in charge of the convoy frigates to do something dumb…. like epic level retarded… and SEALs are historically very good at straightening out Admirals. Consider it an interservice relations exercise. Next, we need some of those Navy Corpsmen. The crazy bastards who embed with Marines. If we get hit and my leg needs amputation, I want it done by a guy who’s done it before, not a guy who’s got s rusty saw and an ikea manual. That’s it. You don’t even need to pay me or my crew a cent. Honestly, this might be the best deal ever, and I know you’ve seen some deals. Oh, just one more thing. We want the same deal y’all gave Bruce Willis’s crew in Armageddon. No more federal taxes. For life. You’ve seen the movie, sir. That scene is basically a documentary about how to negotiate with the federal government. And if I don’t make it? I want to be buried next to Dad in Arlington, and my kids and wife get the no-taxes-ever thing. That’s the Captain Konrad family plan. Very competitive rates. Lastly, we’re going to need a few ships to follow us into Hormuz. Probably no more than ten. I suggest Filipino-crewed ships. They are the best mariners in the world, they are tough as hell, and they will not complain too much. Actually all mariners complain but I’ll have them do that part in tagalog. For the first ten ships that volunteer to follow me through, each crew gets one of your Golden Visas (brilliant idea, by the way) and a pork adobo cookout at the White House on a date of your choosing. I’ll even get one of the guys to send you the recipe. It’s delicious. Trust me. That’s about it. Just let me know what airport I should meet the jet at tomorrow afternoon. Very Best Regards, Captain John Konrad Master, Unlimited Tonnage US Merchant Marine

There is no greater cause than the cause of freedom. It is paid for with the blood of warriors. Let us never take it for granted.

The night in Paris. Etched into the memory of every United fan alongside: - The night in Moscow - The night in Barcelona Etc.

@SimplyAzodo @claudeai I'm game!

@claudeai Who wants to do this in Lagos with me? #ClaudeAILagos Meetup

We're launching Claude Community Ambassadors. Lead local meetups, bring builders together, and partner with our team. Open to any background, anywhere in the world. Apply: claude.com/community/amba…

If you're a Red Rising fan, this will plaster a wide smile on your face 🤤🤤🤤