Some seem to interpret this as meaning I’m anti-internet? I’m not. That’s silly.
My point is pro-interoperability.
Interoperability has been so suppressed over the last two decades that it’s limiting how people think about what computers can do, and what the design space for local software looks like.
A limitation of cloud apps is that you have to interact with the interface you’re given. Some cloud apps have APIs that developers can use to access that data with other tools but it’s always an abstraction that requires some skill.
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.
The problem I see is that many people who switch to local files impose on themselves the limitations of a cloud app. This is because we have become so accustomed to those tools and their limitations.
An example: some people seem to think Obsidian should be an all-in-one tool and implement every feature under the sun. I think that would go against what makes it special.
Remember the idea of skeuomorphism: “A skeuomorph is a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues (attributes) from structures that were necessary in the original.”
If you’re exploring the idea of “file over app” you have to adopt its native qualities and avoid thinking skeuomorphically.
kepano @kepano · 2026-01-08
cloud apps have locked generations of people into self-limiting beliefs about what a computer can do