thoughts on file over app
obsidian's ceo promotes an idea called ‘file over app’. in short it means your data should not be locked in any apps, servers etc.
it is one of the selling points of obsidian - your files are some plain text in markdown format, you have full control and can work with them with or without obsidian.
but is it?
e.g.
i use obsidian to write down some random things i need to do in the daily notes. then i use the task plugin to run a query to keep track of all my open tasks in a single file - ‘tasks.md’.
when i open the same md file with any other text editor, it looks exactly like this
```tasks
not done
```
where is my list?
i am sure there are many ways to solve this without obsidian, after all, i can just use grep.
the more i build my workflow around obsidian the more i will rely on it, until the point i can’t do anything anymore without it.
is that file over app?
derek sivers asked us to write plain text files with a similar idea - our files should outlive any big techs and their apps.
i like text files, that’s how i wrote my notes on a computer before there were ecosystems for note-taking apps.
if i use an app built on a database, it appears i am locked in to the app. what if i export / backup the data into some form of plain text daily. i can still access to my data if i am locked out of the app. what will i miss?
is this file over app?
not to mention if it does well, in most case an app with a robust database will outperformance an app on file-based like obsidian.
getting sh*t done faster!
after all, it doesn’t matter:
Use whatever medium and constraint works for you.
Every medium for ideas is corruptible. There’s no magic file format. Most are likely to last long enough for you to convert to something else if need be.
No one is likely to dig through your thoughts in any file format.
reply by emailIt’s important to think of your captured thoughts as fleeting bits of information across all formats and uses. Maybe you’ll get back to them. Maybe you’ll use them. But investing everything in one, stable format doesn’t take away their fleeting nature. Thoughts will exist here and there for a while, then be gone and forgotten. Just like you.