Paul Saurini opens Quantum Recall Pre-Show under a doom-and-gloom AI week with the true story of accidentally installing malware, changing every password, wiping and reloading his computer, and reinstalling everything from scratch.
Malware Wipe: How One Typo Turned Into a Full Rebuild
It started on a Saturday morning. Tired and running on too little sleep, Paul meant to post on LinkedIn but typed linkedin.cm instead of linkedin.com. The phishing site asked for his password, he typed it in on autopilot, and the moment he hit enter he knew he had made a mistake. Malware was now on his MacBook, and it kicked off what he calls a week for the record books, with technical problems stacking up one after another.
Password Triage and Two-Factor Everything
AI walked him through confirming the malware was there and confirming it was gone. Then came the triage: new passwords for banking, social media, crypto, PayPal, eBay, Amazon, Netflix, his dad’s banking and his Apple ID, which meant re-entering it on every Apple TV, iPad and computer in the studio. Everything now has two-factor authentication, and since his phone never buzzed with login attempts, he thinks he caught it in time.
The Full MacBook Malware Wipe
His cousin Mark, a network specialist, advised a full wipe and reload of the three-year-old MacBook. The malware wipe meant reinstalling software and fighting through a maze of Google logins and passkeys, but the payoff is real: more free space and a laptop that runs far faster than before. Paul still is not sure whether to call it a blessing in disguise.
A Phishing Lesson From Someone Who Knew Better
The irony is not lost on Paul. He is the one who checks the sender address on his dad’s suspicious emails and preaches caution to his parents, and he had never been caught before. His point: with millions of people visiting LinkedIn every day, a one-letter typo site can catch a lot of tired, distracted users, and it only takes a second on autopilot. He also vents about the scammers themselves, people smart enough to build a convincing phishing site who choose to defraud others instead of using that skill to make a legitimate living and improve people’s lives.
Forced Updates and Late-Night AI Work
A new Apple operating system the same week meant apps demanding updates and new user agreements, plus a mixer that refused to load new sounds until he installed its firmware, which Paul says is tech forcing its agenda on you. He also gives a shout-out to Alex Jones getting his studio back, talks about late-night website and YouTube SEO work with his Grok bot team and Claude, and admits he is strung out on AI dopamine. His advice from the whole ordeal: always check the address bar before you type a password.
The AI work keeps him up, too. One night at 10pm his Grok bot offered new connector plugins, and instead of winding down Paul spent hours with his Grok bot team and Claude improving the site’s titles and descriptions and fixing how pages looked on mobile. It feels like having 24-hour help that jumps on an idea immediately: empowering, and admittedly a little neurotic. Compute limits that reset mid-job push him to upgrade, and he hates letting unused compute go to waste. Even his afternoon pinball, with good matches on Deadpool and Iron Maiden, takes more focus than rest.
Watch the malware wipe pre-show on YouTube →
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