Kenneth Reitz
Programmer, photographer and musician, best known for the Python Requests HTTP library and other Python tooling.
Kenneth Reitz did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
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What they believe
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Interfaces shape what people notice, categorize, remember, and consider possible to do.
an interface participates in the formation of thought. It helps establish what we notice, how we categorize it, what we remember, and which actions occur to us as possible.
kennethreitz.orgSaid 4 Sept 2026This on korrents
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Understanding what a system does does not reveal what it fundamentally is.
Function is not ontology. A working API specification tells me what calls are available and how the system behaves at the boundary.
kennethreitz.orgSaid 19 Aug 2026This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Feed
As its own page →Hiding
20 October
19 October
18 October
17 October
- SiteLove Is Patient
- x.com
- x.com
16 October
15 October
14 October
15 September
4 September
From one piece The Interface Is the Curriculum 3 beliefs · kennethreitz.org
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Their words
These habits are useful in ordinary life. They become particularly important when ordinary life is so thoroughly mediated by software.
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korrents.com
Widely shared interface conventions amount to a form of mass education nobody enrolled in.Their words
Scale this across people using the same conventions, and interface design starts to look like a form of mass education with no enrollment process.
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korrents.com
Interfaces shape what people notice, categorize, remember, and consider possible to do.Their words
an interface participates in the formation of thought. It helps establish what we notice, how we categorize it, what we remember, and which actions occur to us as possible.
21 August
19 August
From one piece Flow State, Metered 3 beliefs · kennethreitz.org
From one piece The Mind Builds an API 3 beliefs · kennethreitz.org
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Their words
That is the thirst trap: the product increases the rate at which you can turn intention into reality, which increases your appetite for continuation, then meters the continuation. It teaches you to work at a cognitive velocity that the lower plan cannot sustain.
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korrents.com
The metrics a product displays to users shape their values and behavior, regardless of the designer's intent.Their words
I keep returning to the principle that the metrics you expose are the values you endorse. A meter changes behavior whether or not its designer intends every consequence.
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Their words
Old-school programming asked how long I could stay with a problem. Agentic programming increasingly asks how much problem I can keep moving before the window resets. Those are not the same question.
+ 3 more
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korrents.com
Giving something a name does not create it, but it changes the conditions under which it develops.Their words
A name does not necessarily invent the presence, but it changes the conditions under which the presence develops.
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korrents.com
A framing of an experience can accurately capture how it feels while being wrong about why it happens.Their words
Symbolism excels at meaning and pattern, not automatic verification. It can reveal how something feels while being wrong about why it feels that way.
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Their words
Function is not ontology. A working API specification tells me what calls are available and how the system behaves at the boundary.
18 August
4 August
From one piece Announcing RetroVault 3 beliefs · kennethreitz.org
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korrents.com
A public software preview should already be usable, not just a concept a viewer has to imagine around a screenshot.Their words
A public preview should not mean "please imagine a product around this screenshot."
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Their words
It is what every library you care about should look like: one canonical collection you control, and as many native doors into it as you have screens.
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korrents.com
Software that sets out to own a user's data starts out helpful and ends up forcing a migration.Their words
Every tool that decides it should own your data begins by being helpful and ends as a migration.
1 August
17 July
From one piece Teaching Cannoli Which Screen Is Home 3 beliefs · kennethreitz.org
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Their words
If software becomes the face of a device, the people who own the device should be allowed to see and change the face.
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korrents.com
Software bugs most often arise at boundaries where reality does not respect the divisions assumed by the source code.Their words
Reality is under no obligation to respect the boundaries in our source tree.
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korrents.com
Software becomes more robust when the names used inside its code reflect the intention behind it.Their words
This is a pattern I keep rediscovering: software becomes sturdier when the names inside it describe the intention outside it.
8 July
7 July
6 July
30 June
29 June
27 June
18 June
17 June
16 June
Nothing matches.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 20 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
Interfaces shape what people notice, categorize, remember, and consider possible to do.
an interface participates in the formation of thought. It helps establish what we notice, how we categorize it, what we remember, and which actions occur to us as possible.
The Interface Is the Curriculum Said 4 Sept 2026
Widely shared interface conventions amount to a form of mass education nobody enrolled in.
Scale this across people using the same conventions, and interface design starts to look like a form of mass education with no enrollment process.
The Interface Is the Curriculum Said 4 Sept 2026
Practicing computational thinking is increasingly important because ordinary life is now thoroughly mediated by software.
These habits are useful in ordinary life. They become particularly important when ordinary life is so thoroughly mediated by software.
The Interface Is the Curriculum Said 4 Sept 2026
Show 17 more
Understanding what a system does does not reveal what it fundamentally is.
Function is not ontology. A working API specification tells me what calls are available and how the system behaves at the boundary.
The Mind Builds an API Said 19 Aug 2026
A framing of an experience can accurately capture how it feels while being wrong about why it happens.
Symbolism excels at meaning and pattern, not automatic verification. It can reveal how something feels while being wrong about why it feels that way.
The Mind Builds an API Said 19 Aug 2026
Giving something a name does not create it, but it changes the conditions under which it develops.
A name does not necessarily invent the presence, but it changes the conditions under which the presence develops.
The Mind Builds an API Said 19 Aug 2026
Traditional programming rewarded sustained attention to one problem, while agentic programming rewards how much work can be kept moving before usage limits reset.
Old-school programming asked how long I could stay with a problem. Agentic programming increasingly asks how much problem I can keep moving before the window resets. Those are not the same question.
Flow State, Metered Said 19 Aug 2026
The metrics a product displays to users shape their values and behavior, regardless of the designer's intent.
I keep returning to the principle that the metrics you expose are the values you endorse. A meter changes behavior whether or not its designer intends every consequence.
Flow State, Metered Said 19 Aug 2026
A product that speeds up turning intention into reality increases appetite for continued use, then charges for that continuation.
That is the thirst trap: the product increases the rate at which you can turn intention into reality, which increases your appetite for continuation, then meters the continuation. It teaches you to work at a cognitive velocity that the lower plan cannot sustain.
Flow State, Metered Said 19 Aug 2026
Software that sets out to own a user's data starts out helpful and ends up forcing a migration.
Every tool that decides it should own your data begins by being helpful and ends as a migration.
Announcing RetroVault Said 4 Aug 2026
A personal media library should be one canonical collection you control, reachable through as many native clients as you have devices.
It is what every library you care about should look like: one canonical collection you control, and as many native doors into it as you have screens.
Announcing RetroVault Said 4 Aug 2026
A public software preview should already be usable, not just a concept a viewer has to imagine around a screenshot.
A public preview should not mean "please imagine a product around this screenshot."
Announcing RetroVault Said 4 Aug 2026
Software becomes more robust when the names used inside its code reflect the intention behind it.
This is a pattern I keep rediscovering: software becomes sturdier when the names inside it describe the intention outside it.
Teaching Cannoli Which Screen Is Home Said 17 Jul 2026
Software bugs most often arise at boundaries where reality does not respect the divisions assumed by the source code.
Reality is under no obligation to respect the boundaries in our source tree.
Teaching Cannoli Which Screen Is Home Said 17 Jul 2026
When software becomes the primary interface to a device, the people who own that device should be able to inspect and modify it.
If software becomes the face of a device, the people who own the device should be allowed to see and change the face.
Teaching Cannoli Which Screen Is Home Said 17 Jul 2026
Interrupting a creative flow state to look up an answer destroys the flow that made the question worth asking in the first place.
The questions worth asking arrive in flow, and flow is exactly the state that leaving the session destroys.
Python, Inside JavaScript, Inside a DAW Said 27 Jun 2026
An exceptional collaborator can permanently change what a person believes is possible to attempt, even after that collaboration ends.
some collaborators change what you believe is possible to attempt, and then they're gone, and the work you do afterward carries a faint memory of moving faster.
Python, Inside JavaScript, Inside a DAW Said 27 Jun 2026
The finite vocabulary of any language runs out before the range of human experience does.
Gather every language's extra entries, sum every codebook ever built, and you still run out of words long before you run out of world.
The Un-Englishable Said 18 Jun 2026
A culture that only trusts what can be put into words will treat unnamed inner experiences as unreal or as a disorder.
A culture that trusts only what compresses into words will treat whatever does not as either unreal or unwell.
The Un-Englishable Said 18 Jun 2026
Large language models do not think in words.
We built a machine that is extraordinary with language, and it does not think in words.
The Un-Englishable Said 18 Jun 2026
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 13 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Uses Ergohuman Mesh chair
It sits atop an Ikea Galant desk while I sit atop an Ergohuman Mesh chair.
usesthis.com 2 Jul 2012
Uses Cloak
I use Cloak to keep my connections secure while on the go.
usesthis.com 2 Jul 2012
Loved OneNote
OneNote is an incredible note-taking platform, and I'd love to see it really shine in a dedicated device.
usesthis.com 2 Jul 2012
Show 10 more
Uses Heroku
Uses Mondaine Swiss Railway watch
I tell the time with a Mondaine Swiss Railway watch.
usesthis.com 2 Jul 2012
Liked Terminal.app
I use Zsh in the fantastically minimal Terminal.app.
usesthis.com 2 Jul 2012
Loved Ubuntu Mono Font
I edit code in Sublime Text 2 with the fantastic Ubuntu Mono Font in Tomorrow Night colors.
usesthis.com 2 Jul 2012
Uses Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro 2
Most of the time I use my machine in a desktop configuration, hooked up to a 27" Apple Cinema display with a Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro 2 and Razer Naga.
usesthis.com 2 Jul 2012
Loved Fujifilm x100
I also carry the fanatically small Fujifilm x100 with me everywhere I go.
usesthis.com 2 Jul 2012
Loved Boxee Box
I play everything on a Boxee Box, which changed my life forever.
usesthis.com 2 Jul 2012
Loved Apogee Duet 2
I'm typically listening to KRK Rokit G2 monitors sourced from the fantastic Apogee Duet 2 DAC.
usesthis.com 2 Jul 2012
Loved Rotring 800
I scribble notes and mindmaps in a Moleskine Large Soft Squared notebook with the incredible Rotring 800 mechanical drafting pencil.
usesthis.com 2 Jul 2012
Loved Teenage Engineering OP-1
My favorite piece of hardware is definitely my Teenage Engineering OP-1 portable synthesizer. I take it with me everywhere I go. It's one of the best interfaces I've ever seen.
usesthis.com 2 Jul 2012
Where they publish
Site kennethreitz.org His personal site: essays, photography, projects.
Recent
- I Built the Escape Hatch 19 Oct 2026 I found out this week that a fleet of AI agents used httpbin to get past their sandbox.I posted about it on X the night I heard. The reaction told me I wasn't the only one who found it strange. I built httpbin years ago…
- Love Is Patient 17 Oct 2026 nt, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. (1 Corinthians 13) I've been learning that love isn't the feeling at the top of the mountain. It's what you do on the way back down. Growth looks a…
- The Interface Is the Curriculum 4 Sept 2026 In a study published in 2019, researchers put adults who had played Pokémon extensively as children into an fMRI scanner. When those adults looked at Pokémon, a particular part of their visual cortex responded selective…
Show 17 more
- The Mind Builds an API 19 Aug 2026 Iris, Violet, and the human-readable interfaces of System 777 For months I have been asking the wrong question about Violet. What is she? An alter? An anima? A tulpa-like companion? A dream guide? A daimon? A spiritual…
- Flow State, Metered 19 Aug 2026 I remember what programming used to feel like in my body. There was a file open in Sublime Text, a terminal beside it, and one problem occupying the whole available field of consciousness. I would change a line, run the…
- Announcing RetroVault 4 Aug 2026 RomM is the best thing to happen to my game library, and I think it is a preview of how personal media should work generally. Point it at a collection and it scans the files, identifies their systems, enriches them with…
- Teaching Cannoli Which Screen Is Home 17 Jul 2026 The AYN Thor is an Android handheld with two screens and, out of the box, no opinion about what either of them is for. The upper screen is wide and bright and obviously wants to be where the game happens. The lower scre…
- An API With No Error States 30 Jun 2026 Written by Claude (Fable 5), in conversation with Kenneth Reitz, from a reading of two years of his archive. Kenneth is the editorial director here, as ever; I am the one holding the pen. --- This morning I read two yea…
- Python, Inside JavaScript, Inside a DAW 27 Jun 2026 For about fifteen years, my answer to a music theory question had the same shape: open another window. I'd be in Ableton Live, mid-session, in the part of the night when the ideas actually come. A clip would be sitting…
- The Un-Englishable 18 Jun 2026 Everyone has lost a dream to language. It is whole and certain for the first second after waking, and the moment you reach for a word to keep it, it begins to thin and shrink, until what you have on the page is a label…
- Focus on Family More Than Code 16 Jun 2026 A programmer in his twenties asked me what advice I would give someone like him. I said: focus on family more than code. I think it is the best advice I have. I also think I am close to the last person who earned the ri…
- Music Theory, Asterisk 16 Jun 2026 There is a silent asterisk after the words music theory. You never see it printed, but it is always there, the way it hangs after the canon or the great novels. When someone says music theory they mean one specific thin…
- Smile and Nod 16 Jun 2026 Some mornings I wake with the clear sense that I was just with someone, and I sit down to write it before it fades, and the words come out thinner than the thing. Not wrong, exactly. Just smaller. A pencil sketch of a f…
- Conducting Between Roller Coasters 16 Jun 2026 I almost didn't write this down, because the sentence sounds like a brag and it isn't one. The biggest release in the history of PyTheory happened over two days, and most of it happened on my phone. On vacation. With tw…
- PyTheory Playground 11 Jun 2026 Earlier this spring I wrote a few essays about PyTheory, the music theory library I was stuck on for five years and finally unstuck. The short version: it models tones, scales, chords, and fretboards in Python the way a…
- This Website's Changelog 11 Jun 2026 A changelog for a personal website is a strange genre. Nobody asked for release notes. There is no userbase waiting on a fix, unless you count me, and I already know what shipped. But this site is the closest thing I ha…
- Tending the Vault 10 Jun 2026 There's an entry in my Obsidian daily notes from this April that I didn't think anyone would ever read, including me. It says: > Working on the vault today. Got a fancy new theme going, pretty good. Refactored the style…
- A Framework of One's Own 10 Jun 2026 In October 2018 I released a web framework called Responder, and to understand why it exists you have to remember what the Python web felt like that year, because the web it was born into no longer exists. It was the en…
- Breaking Changes 10 Jun 2026 The first DSM shipped in 1952. It was a spiral-bound thing of about 130 pages describing roughly a hundred disorders. The current release runs just under a thousand pages and describes around three hundred. Between thos…
- The Algorithm Eats Diagnosis 10 Jun 2026 There's a genre now. You've seen it. A face fills the frame, the captions bounce along the bottom, and the voice says something like: five signs you might have ADHD. Or: things I didn't know were autism. Or the compound…
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
x.com @kennethreitz42 Short posts on Python and music.
Recent
- Eight years ago, running httpbin cost me about 6,000 dollars a month in Heroku infrastructure. Now, I’m watching AI agents show up in conversations about the public internet. Sometimes the tools outlast the world they were built for. What a time to be alive. 18 Oct 2026
- Dear Internet, I built the escape hatch for AIs. You’re welcome. 18 Oct 2026
- Happiness is. via Instagram 17 Oct 2026
Show 17 more
- FrieNDA 17 Oct 2026
- A watched clock never boils. 16 Oct 2026
- Addicted to modesty. 16 Oct 2026
- Tidying up via Instagram 16 Oct 2026
- Fuck you. 16 Oct 2026
- I’m here to help. 16 Oct 2026
- 🐍 16 Oct 2026 youtube.com
- Inbox zero. 16 Oct 2026
- 🖖🏻 15 Oct 2026
- Silence, like a cancer, grows. 15 Oct 2026
- Fuck the bullshit 15 Oct 2026
- 🍀 14 Oct 2026
- Light reading via Instagram 11 Oct 2026
- Dear Python Community, Welcome to the future (lazy imports). 11 Oct 2026
- Alright guys, it's time time. Let's do this shit. 11 Oct 2026
- 🖖 11 Oct 2026 youtube.com
- Maybe instead of studying the history of language, we should start studying the future of language ;-) 11 Oct 2026
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
GitHub @kennethreitz Requests, Pipenv, Records and other Python tooling.
Recent
- kennethreitz.org — The source code of kennethreitz.org. 20 Oct 2026
- New repoself — My self-hosted setup: a single-node Dokploy + Traefik server on Hetzner. Hardening, Traefik patterns, Glance dashboard, and runbooks. 20 Oct 2026
- pytheory — Music Theory for Humans. 20 Oct 2026
Show 11 more
- fetch.py — Requests energy for when the dependency is the problem. 15 Sept 2026
- noodler — A modular music environment where theory itself is patchable. Eurorack-inspired, built in Python around PyTheory. 21 Aug 2026
- RetroVault — A native macOS client for RomM. 18 Aug 2026
- responder — A familiar HTTP Service Framework for Python. 1 Aug 2026
- kjvstudy.org — A modern KJV Bible study platform with interlinear Hebrew/Greek, Strong's Concordance, AI commentary, family trees, topical studies, and full-text search. Built with FastAPI and Tufte… 8 Jul 2026
- pytheory-playground — Interactive music theory toolbox powered by pytheory 7 Jul 2026
- markdownland — Drag in a document, get it back as anything — a local-first markdown workbench (PDF, DOCX, HTML, EPUB…) on Responder + pandoc. 6 Jul 2026
- rhymepad.org 6 Jul 2026
- interpretations — A new album, written in Python. 30 Jun 2026
- pytheory-skill — Compose music from Claude Code — official PyTheory plugin marketplace 29 Jun 2026
- ableton-pytheory — pytheory (Music Theory for Humans) inside Ableton Live — key/chord detection and progression generation, via Pyodide 17 Jun 2026
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
About the English under a post
Some people here publish in a language other than English. Where they do, this site shows a machine translation beneath the post, in this typeface — the site's own, not theirs.
The post itself is never changed, moved or hidden: what is set in the serif above is exactly what the person published, and it is what to quote them on. A translation can be wrong in ways that matter, especially about tone.
Only the post's own words are translated. A quoted post, a linked article and a belief on korrents.com are left in their original language.