Matt Birchler
Designer, product manager, YouTuber and developer who has written about technology at Birchtree since 2010. He makes the Quick Reviews and Quick Notes apps and the A Better Computer YouTube channel.
Matt Birchler did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
Latest Mastodon
What they believe
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Mastodon is experiencing a slow but steady decline in the number of people using the service.
Since then, we've seen a slow but steady decline in number of people using Mastodon.
birchtree.meSaid 14 Oct 2026This on korrents
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In a world where it's impossible to make purely moral decisions in everything we do, we should all recognize where we're making trade-offs and not try to paint ourselves as being purely logical.
in a world where it's impossible to make purely moral decisions in everything we do, we should all recognize where we're making trade-offs and not try to paint ourselves as being purely logical.
birchtree.meSaid 14 Oct 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
+ 5 more
- Bluesky
- BlogSmart person derangement
- Mastodon
- Bluesky
- BlogHow to become a mark for con artists
17 October
15 October
- Bluesky
- Blog(not) solitaire
- Bluesky
14 October
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Their words
in a world where it's impossible to make purely moral decisions in everything we do, we should all recognize where we're making trade-offs and not try to paint ourselves as being purely logical.
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korrents.com
Mastodon is experiencing a slow but steady decline in the number of people using the service.Their words
Since then, we've seen a slow but steady decline in number of people using Mastodon.
13 October
- Bluesky
- BlogMac buttons over the years
12 October
- Bluesky
- Blog+ Tesla Cybertaxi first impressions
11 October
- Bluesky
- Blog+ Do you want to cross the streams?
- Bluesky
9 October
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Their words
if your definition of "developer" only includes people writing all the code themselves, then you're not going to be able to call many people that for much longer.
Nothing matches.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 12 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
Mastodon is experiencing a slow but steady decline in the number of people using the service.
Since then, we've seen a slow but steady decline in number of people using Mastodon.
Why does this chart just go down? Said 14 Oct 2026
In a world where it's impossible to make purely moral decisions in everything we do, we should all recognize where we're making trade-offs and not try to paint ourselves as being purely logical.
in a world where it's impossible to make purely moral decisions in everything we do, we should all recognize where we're making trade-offs and not try to paint ourselves as being purely logical.
I don't care what other kids are doing Said 14 Oct 2026
If the definition of "developer" only includes people writing all the code themselves, then many people will not be able to be called that for much longer.
if your definition of "developer" only includes people writing all the code themselves, then you're not going to be able to call many people that for much longer.
What is a developer? Said 9 Oct 2026
Show 9 more
There is a slim chance the 30-year trend toward digitization and rental models for everything will not continue.
There's a chance, slim as it might be, that things won't go the way the've gone the last 30 years with digitization the moving to rental models for everyhing.
+ Gone too far Said 4 Oct 2026
Coincidences happen and correlation does not equal causation.
I'm writing it simply to show that coincidences happen, correlation does not equal causation, and science is not anecdotal.
My phone is clearly listening to me* Said 27 Sept 2026
Anecdotal evidence is insufficient to prove that phones are listening.
If you're going to convince people that your phone is really listening to you and sharing every word you say with advertisers across the world, you need to do better than, "oh, there was this coincidence."
My phone is clearly listening to me* Said 27 Sept 2026
A minor crease on a phone screen is not a significant issue.
I really think a lot of iPhone owners are about to learn how a minor crease is not a big deal, and the "Apple will never ship a phone with a noticeable crease" folks will realize that a minor crease isn't a huge deal (even if it would be nice to totally eliminate one day).
Riley Hill on the Fold8's crease Said 27 Sept 2026
In 2026, angry, typically right-wing influencers and their social media followers have repeatedly shown they live in their own reality, mad about things no one else is.
2026 has been nothing if not a showcase after showcase of how angry (typically) right wing influencers and their social media lackeys are living in their own reality where they’re mad about things no one else is.
Resident Evil movie is widely adored and makes an ass-ton of money Said 21 Sept 2026
Apple's iPad app ecosystem gives the iPhone Duo an advantage over Android-based folding phones.
Apple's big advantage here compared to other folding phones on the market that are based on Android was the iPad ecosystem.
What my apps look like on the iPhone Duo with zero code changes Said 19 Sept 2026
Apps already built for iPad don't need to be redesigned from scratch to work well on larger foldable displays.
app developers don't have to start from square one and reconceptualize their apps for larger displays because a lot of them have already done that by supporting the iPad.
What my apps look like on the iPhone Duo with zero code changes Said 19 Sept 2026
iPhones start a sustained processing task at peak performance and then throttle down to a lower level after a couple of minutes.
iPhones always start out really high, and then after a couple minutes will throttle down and settle somewhere.
The iPhone 18 Pro is a transcription monster Said 18 Sept 2026
MacBook Pros sustain peak processing performance indefinitely during heavy workloads without throttling down like iPhones do.
the MacBook Pro just starts going and will literally just keep in the same performance window from now until the end of time.
The iPhone 18 Pro is a transcription monster Said 18 Sept 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 17 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
Disliked Apple Mail
unlike Apple Mail, which seemingly uses shortcuts that made sense in 1995 and refuses to change.
thesweetsetup.com 9 May 2023
Loved Readwise Reader
is my favorite way to save things to read later, to actually read them, and to sync my highlights wherever I want.
thesweetsetup.com 9 May 2023
Recommends Petey
The app costs a few dollars up front and then has an optional subscription for unlimited requests, but I would recommend going directly to OpenAI’s developer dashboard, creating your own account, and copy/pasting your own API key into Petey.
thesweetsetup.com 9 May 2023
Show 14 more
Loved Mimestream
Mimestream feels like the Apple Mail app I’ve always wished Apple would make. It’s incredibly fast and fluid, it syncs instantly, and it supports all the keyboard shortcuts that you’d expect in a modern app
thesweetsetup.com 9 May 2023
Loved MacWhisper
MacWhisper is a little app I just discovered that changed the game for me when it comes to creating high quality subtitles for my videos.
thesweetsetup.com 9 May 2023
Loved Keyboard Maestro
There are a multitude of ways to automate things on your Mac, but Keyboard Maestro is an S-tier player in this space and I use it for everything I can.
thesweetsetup.com 9 May 2023
Recommends Hazel
Hazel is one of those automation tools that you don’t really know you need until you install it and play around a bit.
thesweetsetup.com 9 May 2023
Loved Final Cut Pro
Professional video editing has never been more accessible than it is today, and Final Cut Pro continues to be my app of choice here.
thesweetsetup.com 9 May 2023
Recommends Fantastical
While Fantastical is probably the best calendar app for most people using Apple devices
thesweetsetup.com 9 May 2023
Liked Cron
Cron is completely free and only works with Google Calendar, but it’s super fast and reliable.
thesweetsetup.com 9 May 2023
Loved Arc
I know it doesn’t click with everyone, but as someone who lives in their browser most of the day, I really need one that’s fast, reliable, and a joy to use, and Arc checks all those boxes for me.
thesweetsetup.com 9 May 2023
Uses Pastebot
Uses Reeder
Reeder is how I follow all my RSS feeds (via Inoreader on the back end for syncing).
thesweetsetup.com 9 May 2023
Uses Raycast
Loved 1Password
As someone who uses more than just Apple devices, 1Password really delivers here and remains my password manager of choice.
thesweetsetup.com 9 May 2023
Loved Adobe Lightroom
Adobe Lightroom is the king of photo editing, but I sync my photo collection with Apple Photos.
thesweetsetup.com 9 May 2023
Uses Things 3
Where they publish
Blog birchtree.me His personal blog about technology and design, running since 2010.
Recent
- Smart person derangement 18 Oct 2026 I'd like to coin a term: smart person derangement. There are people who are very smart. Sometimes they're smart in a specific field or they are just generally pretty damn intelligent. Either way, they're clever and impo…
- How to become a mark for con artists 18 Oct 2026 Hank Green in a video about Theranos: We should not be complacent about the ways in which our world sucks. But if we're convinced that everything sucks and it's because people are terrible and nothing works when that's…
- Birchtree is 16 years old today (and the nicest thing someone said to me this year) 17 Oct 2026 Today marks 16 years since my first post on Birchtree. I was a scrappy 24-year-old who was stuck in a mindlessly uninteresting and low-paying job, but I loved technology. 16 years later, I don’t exactly know why I pulle…
Show 12 more
- (not) solitaire 15 Oct 2026 Despite its name, (not) solitaire is indeed solitaire (draw 2 cards, not 3 though), but with other people playing alongside you and with (often silly) achievements. This is from Zach Gage and is part of the Puzzmo Jubil…
- + Pastry is a privacy-focused clipboard manager coming soon 15 Oct 2026 Yes, I'm working on a clipboard manager. I think it's pretty cool.
- I don't care what other kids are doing 14 Oct 2026 Lex Friedman: A few more thoughts on why embracing X is wrong “The Ellisons are bad, too” is a great argument for paying attention to the Ellisons. It’s not an argument for X. I remember one time as a teenager my parent…
- Why does this chart just go down? 14 Oct 2026 M.G. Siegler: Twitter is Back. Shhh… Magic Dance! But it's also not really a surge in usage, and certainly not on the business side – it's more just a vibes-based resurgence. For weeks now, people have been talking abou…
- Mac buttons over the years 13 Oct 2026 This cool little site lets you scrub through the design of macOS buttons from 1984 through today. I gotta say, I have a soft spot for 2005 Aqua and the iconic 1884 Mac design. In the event this Vercel site disappears on…
- + Tesla Cybertaxi first impressions 12 Oct 2026 I rode in one last week. Here are my impressions.
- + Do you want to cross the streams? 11 Oct 2026 Obviously probably not, but also…maybe?
- Basically all my apps support the iPhone Duo Now 11 Oct 2026 Over the last 24 hours, and bunch of updates shipped, so here's what's new all in one place. Nonogame The whole app looks more beautiful, matching the updated design of the web app Full support for the iPhone Duo Tap to…
- What is a developer? 9 Oct 2026 Andy Nicolaides: I’m not sure what I am, but I know what I’m not I am a developer by trade, but not anything close to iOS development, so whilst no stranger to coding, I’ve spent a couple of months in Xcode and there is
- Software authorship 9 Oct 2026 Lex Friedman: Claude writes code; I author the apps My initial prompt when I started on The Universe, Controlled was about 1,000 words — more than half the length of this article to this point. And it was explicitly onl…
- AirPods 5 are better than I even realized 9 Oct 2026 I knew the AirPods 5 were top-tier AirPods almost immediately after using them for the first time, but I did still have one bit of doubt: how good were these going to be as airplane earbuds? AirPods Pro are awesome, and…
- Unread 5.1 adds Birchfeed and Quick Reads support 9 Oct 2026 Unread 5.1 came out this week, and it's the most significant update to the app for me personally that they've ever shipped. Why is this such a cool update for me? Let's look at the release notes: Unread 5.1 adds these i…
Link verified 4 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
Mastodon @matt_birchler@mastodon.social His Mastodon account.
Recent
- Tonight’s listening is Rostam’s American Stories. Maybe my album of the year. 20 Oct 2026
- Lots of folks are vibing up new firmwares for their smart TVs to make them private and/or dumb. There's a ton of projects out there, but this one's got more support and traction…not something I'm ready to do yet, but it's on my radar. 19 Oct 2026 github.com
- Scrawl is an interesting screenshotting tool for marking things up for your agent to fix. I don't think I need a separate screenshot tool for this, but it's clever. 19 Oct 2026 scrawl.kitlangton.com
Show 17 more
- I've never worked with Mermaid diagrams, but when Steph Ango is making it, I take notice. Looks cool and people who know more about this seem excited. 19 Oct 2026 pele.run
- This skill looks nice! Will be seeing if I can incorporate it somewhere in my apps, 19 Oct 2026 diip3sh.github.io
- 🍊 Tangerine Neue 3.0.0 beta 1 🍊 Mastodon.social is getting the new UI tomorrow, and I've updated Tangerine Neue to support it the best I can. Recommendation: mastodon.social users can use the updated CSS files in a browser extension (like you have to today already). Everyone who installs the theme natively should wait to update until you migrate your server to the new UI as well. 19 Oct 2026 github.com
- Fun design inspiration 19 Oct 2026 designeer.xyz
- Here's some fun inspiration of cool footers from across the web 19 Oct 2026 footer.design
- RE: https://mastodon.social/@darylbaxter/117466294676549178 Build relationships, people. You’ll be happier and they might even pay off in the long run. 19 Oct 2026
- nonogame #91 2:08 • 3 perfect • 0 errors • 0 hints https://nonogame.app/@matt Animated rainbow celebration rolling out now for when you finish in the top 10% of players 👌 19 Oct 2026
- There is no shortage of gradient builders out there, but this one seems pretty damn good 18 Oct 2026 feralui.dev
- This SwiftUI tool promises to let apps do glassy welcome scenes. 18 Oct 2026 github.com
- This is a very cool, but maybe useless skill. Describe something and this turns it into a 3D, semi-interactive 3D representation of that thing. Here's what it made for Nonogame. 18 Oct 2026 skills.wheresryan.sh
- This is a really rad collection of UI components 18 Oct 2026 bencho.dev
- This house has inadvertently captured the vibe in the US right now. 17 Oct 2026
- Birchtree turns 16 today! 17 Oct 2026 birchtree.me
- Quick Notes is my weirdest app as a developer. I use it 100% of the time for Brainstorm Mode. It's all I personally find it useful for. However, over 99% of my users literally never use it, they just use the normal notes feature. There's how I use the app, and there's how almost every single other person uses it 😅 17 Oct 2026
- Begun, work has, on Yearly Run Goals 2 to be ready for the start of the new year. 16 Oct 2026
- Tangerine Neue 2.6.6 is out now with a couple bug fixes. Fixes the stretched nav column in Mastodon's advanced (multi-column) view on 4.6+, gives the new Collections notifications and pages proper theme styling, and adds a real "increase contrast" boost for the theme's own components. Thanks to @danielsnor for the fixes! 16 Oct 2026 github.com
- (not) solitaire has some awesome animations when you wrap up a game ❤️ 16 Oct 2026 notsolitaire.com
Link verified 4 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
Bluesky @birchtree.me His Bluesky account, handled by his site's domain.
Recent
- Smart person derangement 18 Oct 2026
- How to become a mark for con artists 18 Oct 2026
- Birchtree is 16 years old today (and the nicest thing someone said to me this year) 17 Oct 2026
Show 17 more
- (not) solitaire 15 Oct 2026
- + Pastry is a privacy-focused clipboard manager coming soon 15 Oct 2026
- I don't care what other kids are doing 14 Oct 2026
- Why does this chart just go down? 14 Oct 2026
- Mac buttons over the years 13 Oct 2026
- + Tesla Cybertaxi first impressions 12 Oct 2026
- + Do you want to cross the streams? 11 Oct 2026
- Basically all my apps support the iPhone Duo Now 11 Oct 2026
- What is a developer? 9 Oct 2026
- Software authorship 9 Oct 2026
- AirPods 5 are better than I even realized 9 Oct 2026
- Unread 5.1 adds Birchfeed and Quick Reads support 9 Oct 2026
- Hand-drawn Emoji for Chrome and Obsidian 8 Oct 2026
- Say hello to "Parakeet Turbo" 5 Oct 2026
- I love bringing a real camera to concerts. The real camera, of course, is the iPhone 😉 4 Oct 2026
- The party of making things worse 4 Oct 2026
- Fetishizing something most people don't care about 4 Oct 2026
Link verified 4 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
YouTube @ABetterComputer A Better Computer, his YouTube channel about software and workflows.
Recent
Link verified 4 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.