File over app File over app is a philosophy: if you want to create digital artifacts that last, they must be files you can control, in formats that are easy to retrieve and read. Use tools that give you this freedom. File over app is an appeal to tool makers: accept that all software is ephemeral, and give people ownership over their data. In the fullness of time, the files you create are more important than the tools you use to create them. Apps are ephemeral, but your files have a chance to last. The pyramids of Egypt contain hieroglyphs that were chiseled in stone thousands of years ago. The ideas hieroglyphs convey are more important than the type of chisel that was used to carve them. The world is filled with ideas from generations past, transmitted through many mediums, from clay tablets to manuscripts, paintings, sculptures, and tapestries. These artifacts are objects that you can touch, hold, own, store, preserve, and look at. To read something written on paper all you need is eyeballs. Today, we are creating innumerable digital artifacts, but most of these artifacts are out of our control. They are stored on servers, in databases, gated behind an internet connection, and login to a cloud service. Even the files on your hard drive use proprietary formats that make them incompatible with older systems. Paraphrasing something I wrote recently: > If you want your writing to still be readable on a computer from the 2060s or 2160s, it’s important that your notes can be read on a computer from the 1960s. You should want the files you create to be durable, not only for posterity, but also for your future self. You never know when you might want to go back to something you created years or decades ago. Don’t lock your data into a format you can’t retrieve. These days I write using an app I help make called Obsidian (@obsdmd), but it’s a delusion to think it will last forever. The app will eventually become obsolete. It’s the plain text files I create that are designed to last. Who knows if anyone will want to read them besides me, but future me is enough of an audience to make it worthwhile.

my current obsession is doors

Oops, it looks like Twitter filters out DMs that include a URL, so just don't include the URLs in your first message 🫠

Coming soon: Obsidian widgets for iOS. However, I need some help with Android... Does anyone have experience building Android widgets and want to help out? Please DM me if you're an Obsidian user and can share links to specific Android apps you built.

Flexo is not amused by construction, but it was worth it

I'm slowly working on a blog post about this, in the meantime I shared a few more projects here:

I don't disagree with sdw's take below — that's why just outside we have a grill and pizza oven where fire can be harnessed I think the answer is to have both if you can

the biggest gamble was switching to a new battery-backed induction stove (Copper Charlie) it took time to get used to, but it's grown on me — boils water faster than gas, no fumes, easier to clean but I left all the hookups in case I want to switch back

one benefit of a small house is being able to have maximum attention to detail I think I'd go crazy trying to do this in a large house

this project was much harder than all the other ones combined because it touched everything: electric, gas, plumbing, hvac, flooring, roofing

new materials and patterns were introduced in the house style guide — particularly stainless steel

it started with the idea to make an omakase counter inside our house, because my wife and I love to cook for our friends in an intimate setting

the kitchen!

If the reward function is to reduce the number of touches in a support ticket, this is one way to do it.

No shade on Obsidian Entertainment, I think they're using off-the-shelf AI support software. But is it a reinforcement learning issue? If the reward function is to reduce the number of touches in a support ticket, this is one way to do it.

When you email issues to Obsidian Entertainment (the video game company) their AI support hallucinates and tells you to email Obsidian (the note-taking company) instead. The perils of trusting an LLM with your customer support.

here's a snippet for my hardcover book effect in @obsdmd gist.github.com/kepano/8afc4…

Hardcover book effect for Obsidian Bases

in the original skin I had settings that let you tweak the colors