Paul Ford
Writer and programmer; co-founder of the software studio Postlight and author of the Bloomberg Businessweek essay What Is Code?
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What they believe
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Decades of warnings about an AI apocalypse do not justify much concern today.
Everyone else is worried about the AI apocalypse but I've been hearing about that for 30 years and I can't get very worked up any more.
ftrain.comSaid 12 Sept 2026This on korrents
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Their words
Everyone else is worried about the AI apocalypse but I've been hearing about that for 30 years and I can't get very worked up any more.
11 September
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5 September
4 September
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Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 1 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
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Decades of warnings about an AI apocalypse do not justify much concern today.
Everyone else is worried about the AI apocalypse but I've been hearing about that for 30 years and I can't get very worked up any more.
Everyone else is worried about the AI apocalypse but I’ve been hearing about that for 30 years and I... Said 12 Sept 2026
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Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 4 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 iPad Pro (12.9-inch)
I also use a maxed-out 12.9" iPad Pro for meetings and note-taking, with the Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard.
usesthis.com 22 Aug 2019
Loved Huawei MateBook X Pro
It is a shameless, down-to-the-packaging ripoff of the before-they-screwed-up-the-keyboard-era MacBook Pro, and thus just a lovely machine.
usesthis.com 22 Aug 2019
Loved Google Meet speakermic
so we use Google Meet speakermics, which allow for full-duplex conversations, which makes conversation far more organic. That device turned Google Meet from something exhausting to something really good.
usesthis.com 22 Aug 2019
Show 1 more
Uses Google Pixel 3
My phone is a maxed-out Google Pixel 3, which I use for phone things: Email, reading, web browsing, messaging, music, and taking pictures
usesthis.com 22 Aug 2019
Where they publish
Site ftrain.com Ftrain, his personal site and writing archive.
Link verified 5 Sept 2026.
Bluesky @ftrain.bsky.social His Bluesky account.
Recent
- hey I heard you like sankey diagrams that show huge populations making terrible decisions 16 Sept 2026
- R train late night trifecta: guy going home with a double bass, guy on here with a whole CitiBike, and someone pulled the emergency brake. 16 Sept 2026
- if I had this I could finish so many songs www.roland.com/global/produ... 15 Sept 2026
Show 17 more
- Huh. I've been thinking about what makes great software for a while. medium.com/message/the-... 12 Sept 2026
- I feel like I am constantly inventing new ways to convince my kids to do the laundry, eat lunch, or leave the house, endless variations on the same things like some sort of stochastic parent. 12 Sept 2026
- You know the Milgram experiment where people hit a button and heard people screaming in the other room but they kept doing it because they felt they had to? That’s actually how posting works on here. 12 Sept 2026
- Everyone else is worried about the AI apocalypse but I’ve been hearing about that for 30 years and I can’t get very worked up any more. For me the question is: If these things can code (and they can!) then why aren’t we seeing any great software? www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/o... 12 Sept 2026
- looks like the singularity is here folks 11 Sept 2026
- I wish David Bowie was alive to narrate this moment back to us. I just think he'd have it nailed. 11 Sept 2026
- On the bright side, if the robots kill us all, it means that your sworn enemies are in for it too. 11 Sept 2026
- I vibed up a weird music screensaver a month ago, but I kept thinking, “What if it was an imaginary failed 90s arranger keyboard called the Stellate that generated music in 500 genres?” So this is an imaginary web port of that. It's a mess, but I keep laughing at it. Exports to Ableton. stellate.app 8 Sept 2026
- The Library Innovation Lab at Harvard University: “Binoc is a command-line tool and library that, given two snapshots of a dataset, efficiently summarizes the differences between the two snapshots in a human-readable changelog.” lil.law.harvard.edu/blog/2026/07... 8 Sept 2026
- Bluesky provides a mobile web view that runs great on my four-year-old phone and never pushes me to download an app. That is special and appreciated and I hope it continues. 5 Sept 2026
- If you’re a Flatbush-area mutual aid type, this self-organizing distro happens every Friday at 5PM across the street from Kings Theatre. If you want to help show up and hand out food or clothes, or just donate via Venmo. Or cook! 4 Sept 2026
- We're doing an event September 15 with the brilliant Julia Stoyanovich of NYU, who is trying to get all these bots under control. NYC, free, snacks! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_S... luma.com/aboard-qmfz 4 Sept 2026
- A neat project at work: We built an archive for Lapham's Quarterly as part of its (gradual, ongoing) relaunch—full access if you subscribe. It's been nice to see and read it again. Ping if you find bugs. archive.laphamsquarterly.org (they relaunched temporarily at laphamsquarterly.substack.com). 3 Sept 2026
- I firmly believe all online discourse reduces to this Perry Bible Fellowship comic. pbfcomics.com/comics/weeab... 3 Sept 2026
- The humans do this ceremony where they enter a dark room and are forced to account to some sort of priest for their past transgressions, and every time they speak they must eat a poison meat that causes them incredible pain. That is how I think an alien would see Hot Ones. 2 Sept 2026
- Not seeing much mention in the discourse of Hard Candy Christmas, a modern holiday classic. youtu.be/bvK1F6bUrzU?... 28 Aug 2026
- “Contentbeheerder” is much better job title than “Content Manager.” Once again the Dutch have beat us at words. To anglophone ears it's got a mix of: Herding things; buzzing bees; and comically-mispronounced beheading (“if you miss your deadline I will beherd you”) which makes it accurate. 14 Aug 2026
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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