# "I Can't Believe It's Not Software!" Paul Ford on AI and the Asterisk*

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/future-around-find-out-5737933/i-can-t-believe-it-s-not-software-paul-ford-on-ai-and-the-asterisk
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/future-around-find-out-5737933/i-can-t-believe-it-s-not-software-paul-ford-on-ai-and-the-asterisk.md
Podcast: [Future Around & Find Out](https://stenobird.com/podcast/future-around-find-out-5737933)
Published: 2026-04-21T09:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://share.transistor.fm/s/651c9379
Audio file: https://media.transistor.fm/651c9379/3efab1ea.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/future-around-find-out-5737933/episodes/i-can-t-believe-it-s-not-software-paul-ford-on-ai-and-the-asterisk
Duration seconds: 2711

## Resource

So what even is “real” software anyway? Someone builds an app over the weekend. It works. It looks good. And then the search begins — for the asterisk. Security? Design quality? Can it go to production? Paul Ford says we’re in a new era: "I can't believe it's not software!" Paul is the co-founder of Aboard , where he helps organizations build custom software quickly, using AI tools. He's also one of my favorite tech writers. You may know him from " What Is Code ," the opus he wrote for Bloomberg Businessweek a decade ago or from his writing in the New York Times, including his recent opinion piece, The A.I. Disruption We’ve Been Waiting for Has Arrived . Or perhaps you’re hip to Ftrain , where he’s been writing for longer than we’ve had the word “blog.” In this conversation, recorded at Aboard’s podcast studio (Paul and his cofounder also host a great show ), we dig into the strange new world where roles are colliding, software* gets built quickly, and no one is quite sure what to teach their kids. We get into: What Paul calls "the great search for the asterisk" — the moment someone demos an app and everyone scrambles to find the catch How the power dynamic between engineers and everyone else is fundamentally shifting — and why that's both liberating and destabilizing Why vibe coded prototypes are changing how agencies pitch and price their work — and why pricing is "very unresolved" The skills that actually matter now: client communication, systems thinking, and depth over velocity Why "the environmental costs [of AI] have become essentially a truthful folk narrative to talk about how difficult and scary and painful it is to see your life get continually smashed into bits." What he's teaching his kids (hint: it's not to code) Chapters: (01:40) - “We’re in a funny mome…

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