Summary

Kepano (Obsidian’s CEO) clarifies that his “file over app” stance is not anti-internet but pro-interoperability. He argues two decades of cloud apps have suppressed interoperability and trained people into self-limiting beliefs about computing. Switching to local files means moving from a single tool to a constellation of tools sharing the same data — but only if users shed the skeuomorphic habits inherited from cloud apps, like expecting one app to do everything.

Kepano(Obsidian 執行長)澄清「file over app」並非反對網路,而是支持互通性。他認為過去二十年雲端應用壓抑了互通性,使人們對電腦能做什麼產生自我設限的信念。改用本地檔案等於從單一工具轉向一群能共用同一份資料的工具,但前提是使用者要擺脫從雲端應用繼承的擬物化思維,例如期待單一應用包山包海。

Key Points

  • The argument is pro-interoperability, not anti-internet.
  • Cloud apps lock you into a given interface; APIs are an abstraction requiring skill.
  • Local files turn one tool into a constellation of tools sharing data directly.
  • Many local-file adopters wrongly impose cloud-app limitations on themselves.
  • Obsidian should not become an all-in-one tool; that would betray its design.

Insights

The skeuomorphism framing is the sharpest point: people carry the ornamental constraints of cloud apps (single-app mentality, rigid feature expectations) into a file-based world where those constraints no longer apply. The real shift is not the file format but the mental model — data as a shared substrate that many independent tools can operate on. This connects directly to why plain-text, AI-readable notes are valuable: open data invites a tool ecosystem rather than vendor lock-in.

Connections

Raw Excerpt

If you switch from a cloud app to using local files you’re effectively switching from a single tool to a constellation of tools that can all directly work with the same data.