File Over App

Summary

Steph Ango argues that durable digital artifacts demand files in formats you control. Applications come and go, but content stored in plain text and open formats remains readable for decades. The principle serves both historical posterity and practical self-interest: your future self needs access to your past work.

Key Points

• Apps are ephemeral, files endure. Egyptian hieroglyphs and medieval manuscripts survived because the medium didn't require specific software to decode. Digital work trapped in proprietary databases faces obsolescence.
• Own your data. Most digital content lives in cloud services and proprietary formats beyond user control. When those services shut down or change, the content becomes inaccessible.
• Plain text wins. Simple, open formats ensure readability across decades. Ango writes in Obsidian but emphasizes the underlying plain text files matter more than the app.
• Build for portability. Developers should acknowledge their software's temporary nature and prioritize user data ownership. The best tools let users leave with their data intact.