Paul Ford (born August 11, 1974) is an American writer, programmer, and entrepreneur, based in New York City. In 1997, he started ''Ftrain.com'', one of the earliest

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

s. He wrote for ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States. ''Harper's Magazine'' has ...

'' from 2004 to 2010 and is a regular contributor to ''

Wired Magazine ''Wired'' is a bi-monthly American magazine that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. It is published in both print and Online magazine, online editions by Condé Nast. The magazine has been in public ...

''; he has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, MIT Technology Review, and NPR. In 2015, he published a 38,000-word article in

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

titled "What is Code", a "deep dive into the meaning, practice, culture, and business of software", and the longest article ever run in the magazine. The piece won a

National Magazine Award The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...

in 2016, was included in ''The Best American Magazine Writing 2016'' published by the

American Society of Magazine Editors The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) is an industry trade group for magazine journalists and editors of magazines published in the United States. ASME includes the editorial leaders of most major consumer magazine in print and digital ...

and

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's la ...

, and Ford, together with Bloomberg editor

Josh Tyrangiel Josh Tyrangiel is an American journalist. He was previously the deputy managing editor of ''TIME'' magazine and an editor at ''Bloomberg Businessweek''.Stephanie Clifford (November 17, 2009"Josh Tyrangiel Named Editor of BusinessWeek"/ref> In Ju ...

, appeared on ''

Charlie Rose Charles Peete Rose Jr. (born January 5, 1942) is an American journalist and talk show host. From 1991 to 2017, he was the host and executive producer of the talk show ''Charlie Rose (talk show), Charlie Rose'' on PBS and Bloomberg L.P., Bloombe ...

'' to discuss it. Ford is the author of ''The Secret Lives of Web Pages'' first published in 2016, with an updated edition forthcoming in 2025. He is a co-founder o
Aboard
an AI startup, and Postlight, a design and digital strategy consultancy that was acquired by NTT Data in 2022. He served as an advisor to the White House Office of Digital Strategy during the

Obama Administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, took office following his victory over Republican nomine ...

References

External links

Ftrain.com
Paul Ford's weblog (active 1997–2017) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Paul Living people 1974 births American computer programmers American writers American businesspeople Wired (magazine) people