Design Better · 2026-06-03 · 26 min
Paul Ford likes to call himself a “fun Cassandra” - someone who, like the priestess in Greek mythology, sees trouble coming, but unlike her tries to make the warning as entertaining as possible. He’s the writer, developer, and co-founder of the tech agency Aboard who saw Claude Code drop last November and immediately understood it was going to change everything - while finding, to his surprise, that most people around him simply weren’t seeing it that way. This is a preview of a premium episode. Find the full interview on our Substack: That same instinct is what drew him into AI early. Where others hedged, Paul dove in - vibe coding nonstop, running full enterprise subscriptions for his entire team, and building in earnest. But he’s not a fanboy. He’s a critical optimist who believes something important is happening, while holding equal concern about the companies pushing it, the students expected to learn from it, and the decades of hard-won knowledge that might be quietly evaporating in the rush. Paul is also an English major who sold an agency, a developer who thinks in prose, and a father of 14-year-old twins - one of the most multi-disciplinary thinkers we’ve had on the show.
Chris Entwisle and Mark Havens: authors of WAIL on the constraints that led to timeless designs for Prestige Records58 / 100Niyati Gupta: Netflix Product Design Lead on what happens when a designer becomes a product manager, and why your influence might not be in your titleMike Schnaidt: Fast Company Creative Director on typography, creative endurance, and designing for the long haulBonus Episode: Dorrian Porter returns with the Vestaboard NoteTina Roth Eisenberg: Creative Mornings founder on building communities that run on trust