File Over App
Efforts to make information conform to archaic notions of scarcity, ownership, and finite physical quantity--concepts that grew out of the agricultural and industrial age--merely lock us into old mental boxes of constraint and exploitation.
Dee Hock • One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organizati…
The idea of “file over app” is to care a lot more about your data itself than the app or platform it’s in. Like, the app you’re using now? Probably not going to be around in 50 years. Text files and JPGs and PDFs? Way more likely to still be here! So invest in formats that last, not apps that don’t.
David Pierce • Why all your notes and files should be plain text - The Verge
Take the humble “document” as an example. For decades, document editing programs like word processors effectively emulated a printed sheet of paper, onto which the user typed with an emulated typewriter. Other software tools like spreadsheets did better, managing to escape complete skeuomorphism in favor of an infinite canvas. Notion is another goo... See more