Tom MacWright
Software engineer and writer; worked on Mapbox and built Placemark and Simple Statistics, and blogs at macwright.com.
Tom MacWright 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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Imitating people for their personal qualities, rather than their possessions or desires, is a better way to live.
Finding personal qualities as something to imitate instead of desires and possessions (cue the segue into Girard's Memetic theory) seems like a better way to live.
macwright.comSaid 1 Sept 2026This on korrents
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Mapbox GL JS's license does not qualify as open source because it requires a Mapbox account and adherence to Mapbox's terms of service.
Mapbox GL's license is not open source and requires the developer to have a Mapbox account and follow their Terms of Service.
macwright.comSaid 25 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
1 October
27 September
23 September
21 September
11 September
1 September
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korrents.com
Imitating people for their personal qualities, rather than their possessions or desires, is a better way to live.Their words
Finding personal qualities as something to imitate instead of desires and possessions (cue the segue into Girard's Memetic theory) seems like a better way to live.
25 August
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Their words
Mapbox GL's license is not open source and requires the developer to have a Mapbox account and follow their Terms of Service.
14 August
From one piece Technology optimism hour 3 beliefs · macwright.com
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korrents.com
Longer device upgrade cycles are beneficial because they reduce e-waste, pollution, and churn.Their words
But either way, it's good that upgrade cycles are longer: it means less e-waste, less pollution, less churn overall.
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korrents.com
Decentralized networks can be both principled and mainstream-popular without giving up usability.Their words
It's exciting, and shows that you don't have to accept a bad set of tradeoffs to make tech that's both principled and popular.
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Their words
Software that's composed of hundreds of little modules from hundreds of authors is a lovely idea that doesn't work with malicious actors.
24 July
From one piece Printing tiny photos for paper journals 3 beliefs · macwright.com
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korrents.com
AirPods' reliability comes from using a proprietary protocol rather than standard Bluetooth.Their words
AirPods work flawlessly because they're cheating with a proprietary Apple-only protocol.
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Their words
For Chinese-based consumer electronics like this, the hardware is usually a lot better than the software.
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korrents.com
Bluetooth technology is generally unreliable.Their words
Virtually nothing that uses Bluetooth is reliable, and this is no exception.
17 July
13 July
1 July
30 June
4 June
From one piece Recently 2 beliefs · macwright.com
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korrents.com
Younger generations are rejecting AI hype while older generations, who stand to benefit from it, remain optimisticTheir words
there's a consistent theme where Gen Z (and millennials, to some extent) are rejecting the AI hype while older generations are optimistic and coincidentally in a position to benefit from it.
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Their words
The governed have something the governors need: labor, tax revenue, military service, consumer spending. This dependency is the source of democratic leverage.
29 May
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Likedrcmnd.app
Elgato Wave 3Their words
Microphone: Elgato Wave 3. This, with the boom, is convenient and reliable. Big upgrade from the Blue Yeti I used previously.
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Mixed onrcmnd.app
LG UltraFineTheir words
Monitor: The 24" LG UltraFine. Monitors are almost universally bad, but this one is fine, just expensive.
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Lovedrcmnd.app
Moondrop QuarksTheir words
Finally, I tried these extremely cheap ones, and they were best of all. $13. They're perfect. Solidly built, lightweight, great sound quality, what more can you ask for.
+ 12 more
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Lovedrcmnd.app
NeovimTheir words
Editor: neovim with LazyVim. I can't quit it.
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Likedrcmnd.app
HeliumTheir words
Browser: Helium. Chrome's good performance and devtools, none of the Google junk.
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Likedrcmnd.app
GhosttyTheir words
Terminal: Ghostty. It's missing a scroll bar and search, but otherwise super fast and nice.
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Lovedaffiliate linkrcmnd.app
FastmailTheir words
Email: Fastmail (referral link). I love it. The UI, the company's style, the calendar interface, the integration with 1Password.
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Likedrcmnd.app
NetlifyTheir words
Hosting: Netlify. This site uses Netlify, and it's pretty good.
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Usesrcmnd.app
FeedbinTheir words
Reading: Feedbin for RSS, Instapaper for reading it later, Calibre for managing eBooks and Kindle syncing.
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Usesrcmnd.app
InstapaperTheir words
Reading: Feedbin for RSS, Instapaper for reading it later, Calibre for managing eBooks and Kindle syncing.
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Usesrcmnd.app
CalibreTheir words
Reading: Feedbin for RSS, Instapaper for reading it later, Calibre for managing eBooks and Kindle syncing.
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Lovedrcmnd.app
Hawbuck walletTheir words
A Hawbuck wallet. I still use cash, so no aluminum thingy or phone add-on in place of a wallet. It's not made of animals, lightweight, lasts a long time, not that expensive, a perfect wallet.
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Likedrcmnd.app
Spurcycle carabinerTheir words
Very secure and convenient, and has a bottle opener which is really effective and one of the most unintuitive devices I've ever found: zero people have used it correctly on the first try.
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Lovedrcmnd.app
Garmin Forerunner 945Their words
The watch's battery lasts a long time, it doesn't distract me, I don't have my phone notifications piped into it, I love it.
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Usesrcmnd.app
Kobo Libra ColorTheir words
e-Readers: Kobo Libra Color and a basic Kindle.
5 May
4 May
29 April
20 April
17 April
26 March
11 March
Nothing matches.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 10 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
Imitating people for their personal qualities, rather than their possessions or desires, is a better way to live.
Finding personal qualities as something to imitate instead of desires and possessions (cue the segue into Girard's Memetic theory) seems like a better way to live.
Recently Said 1 Sept 2026
Mapbox GL JS's license does not qualify as open source because it requires a Mapbox account and adherence to Mapbox's terms of service.
Mapbox GL's license is not open source and requires the developer to have a Mapbox account and follow their Terms of Service.
Placemark is now fully open source Said 25 Aug 2026
A software ecosystem made of many tiny modules from many different authors is unsafe against malicious actors and should give way to larger, vetted libraries.
Software that's composed of hundreds of little modules from hundreds of authors is a lovely idea that doesn't work with malicious actors.
Technology optimism hour Said 14 Aug 2026
Show 7 more
Decentralized networks can be both principled and mainstream-popular without giving up usability.
It's exciting, and shows that you don't have to accept a bad set of tradeoffs to make tech that's both principled and popular.
Technology optimism hour Said 14 Aug 2026
Longer device upgrade cycles are beneficial because they reduce e-waste, pollution, and churn.
But either way, it's good that upgrade cycles are longer: it means less e-waste, less pollution, less churn overall.
Technology optimism hour Said 14 Aug 2026
Bluetooth technology is generally unreliable.
Virtually nothing that uses Bluetooth is reliable, and this is no exception.
Printing tiny photos for paper journals Said 24 Jul 2026
Chinese consumer electronics tend to have better hardware than software.
For Chinese-based consumer electronics like this, the hardware is usually a lot better than the software.
Printing tiny photos for paper journals Said 24 Jul 2026
AirPods' reliability comes from using a proprietary protocol rather than standard Bluetooth.
AirPods work flawlessly because they're cheating with a proprietary Apple-only protocol.
Printing tiny photos for paper journals Said 24 Jul 2026
Democratic power ultimately rests on ordinary people controlling resources rulers depend on, like labor and tax revenue
The governed have something the governors need: labor, tax revenue, military service, consumer spending. This dependency is the source of democratic leverage.
Recently Said 4 Jun 2026
Younger generations are rejecting AI hype while older generations, who stand to benefit from it, remain optimistic
there's a consistent theme where Gen Z (and millennials, to some extent) are rejecting the AI hype while older generations are optimistic and coincidentally in a position to benefit from it.
Recently Said 4 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 19 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 Kobo Libra Color
e-Readers: Kobo Libra Color and a basic Kindle.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Loved Garmin Forerunner 945
The watch's battery lasts a long time, it doesn't distract me, I don't have my phone notifications piped into it, I love it.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Liked Spurcycle carabiner
Very secure and convenient, and has a bottle opener which is really effective and one of the most unintuitive devices I've ever found: zero people have used it correctly on the first try.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Show 16 more
Loved Hawbuck wallet
A Hawbuck wallet. I still use cash, so no aluminum thingy or phone add-on in place of a wallet. It's not made of animals, lightweight, lasts a long time, not that expensive, a perfect wallet.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Uses Calibre
Reading: Feedbin for RSS, Instapaper for reading it later, Calibre for managing eBooks and Kindle syncing.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Uses Instapaper
Reading: Feedbin for RSS, Instapaper for reading it later, Calibre for managing eBooks and Kindle syncing.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Uses Feedbin
Reading: Feedbin for RSS, Instapaper for reading it later, Calibre for managing eBooks and Kindle syncing.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Liked Netlify
Hosting: Netlify. This site uses Netlify, and it's pretty good.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Loved Fastmail
Email: Fastmail (referral link). I love it. The UI, the company's style, the calendar interface, the integration with 1Password.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
affiliate link
Liked Ghostty
Terminal: Ghostty. It's missing a scroll bar and search, but otherwise super fast and nice.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Liked Helium
Browser: Helium. Chrome's good performance and devtools, none of the Google junk.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Loved Neovim
Editor: neovim with LazyVim. I can't quit it.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Loved Moondrop Quarks
Finally, I tried these extremely cheap ones, and they were best of all. $13. They're perfect. Solidly built, lightweight, great sound quality, what more can you ask for.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Mixed on LG UltraFine
Monitor: The 24" LG UltraFine. Monitors are almost universally bad, but this one is fine, just expensive.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Liked Elgato Wave 3
Microphone: Elgato Wave 3. This, with the boom, is convenient and reliable. Big upgrade from the Blue Yeti I used previously.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Loved Sony WH1000XM4
Headphones: Sony WH1000XM4. The noise-cancelling is fantastic. These just work
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Liked Keychron K7
Keyboard: Keychron K7. I've tried the weird keyboards but I still type fastest on the Mac layout. This is one of the few keyboards that's almost exactly the Mac layout - the "Command" key is in the right place.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Liked ROG Gladius II
Mouse: ROG Gladius II. USB-C charging, solid wireless, replaceable parts.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Loved MacBook Air M2
With 24gb RAM, it's an odd combination – a beefy turbocharger on a Honda Civic. But it's a great computer, one of the best I've ever owned.
macwright.com 29 May 2026
Where they publish
Blog macwright.com His blog and /uses page.
Recent
- Recently 1 Oct 2026 September was another big month for my life, mostly for me offline. Another good month for bicycle riding, seeing more of the trails on Randalls and Wards Islands. The New York area has taught me a few things about isla…
- Recently 1 Sept 2026 I skipped August's Recently because this summer has been relentless, mostly in the positive sense. July and August were filled with bike rides, 5K races, friends in town, life changes and logistics. For a friend's birth…
- Placemark is now fully open source 25 Aug 2026 Context: Placemark is a tool that lets you view, create, and edit geospatial (map) data. I ran it as a company for a while and open sourced it when I shut down that company. Yesterday Placemark got a pretty big PR from…
Show 7 more
- Technology optimism hour 14 Aug 2026 Back in 2022, I wrote Web technology optimism hour, highlighting the things I thought were cool about the state of technology. Time flies. Let's do it again. It's still easy to be pessimistic, but it's nice to mine your…
- Printing tiny photos for paper journals 24 Jul 2026 I'm still writing my journals on paper. Makes it about a decade of notebooks, most of them Field Notes, kept in the archival wooden boxes[1]. Writing by hand helps me remember and process life. Finishing notebooks give…
- Recently 1 Jul 2026 June was a big month: I went to Porto & Lisbon, and had a lot of life stuff happen. I'll get into the trip once I get my rolls of film developed. Three rolls at a new photo developing place: fingers crossed! Reading I f…
- Recently 4 Jun 2026 A section of trail in Switzerland May was a big month! The highlight was a cycling trip around Lake Konstanz, passing through Konstanz, Bregenz Austria, Stein am Rhein in Switzerland, and Meersburg. A farm in Bodenseeuf…
- Intermezzo bag 5 May 2026 I've been reading the new Sally Rooney novel, Intermezzo. It's really beautiful. The perfect kind of novel to read slowly. She manages to write prose that's engaging at the micro and macro levels - beautiful sentences,…
- Recently 4 May 2026 I spent a lot of time outside in April. The first two weekends I did long bike rides: from Brooklyn to Tarrytown along the Old Croton Aqueduct trail, and out to Rockaway Beach via the Marine Parkway Bridge & Cross Bay M…
- Eleventy 17 Apr 2026 When I started this blog in 2011, I built it using Jekyll. Jekyll served me well for fifteen years. It was fast enough, and though it would take me an hour or two to get the system reinstalled when I switched laptops, i…
Link verified 4 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
GitHub tmcw His open-source work.
Recent
- bespoke — Image resizing for macwright.org. Full, medium, small, and original, in jpeg and webp. 1 Oct 2026
- indiepixel — Python tidbyt pixel graphics generator 27 Sept 2026
- awesome-geojson — GeoJSON utilities that will make your life easier. 23 Sept 2026
Show 9 more
- geojson-flatten — flatten multipart geometries and geometrycollections in geojson 21 Sept 2026
- quotes — guiding principles. 11 Sept 2026
- nvim — My .vim 17 Jul 2026
- awesome-codemirror — Awesome CodeMirror plugins, themes, wrappers, and more 13 Jul 2026
- today-i-learned — keeping track of things i never would have guessed but were true anyway 30 Jun 2026
- notfoundbot — fix & archive outgoing links on your website 29 Apr 2026
- atfloathack — Potentially general-purpose workaround for the atmosphere's lack of floats 20 Apr 2026
- add-last-updated — Add lastUpdated to Astro Starlight frontmatter based on git information 26 Mar 2026
- keybinding-challenge 11 Mar 2026
Link verified 4 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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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.