Local is the future

Whenever i think about using any note-taking app, second brain, PKMs, or whatever you want to call the piece of software to write things down on, i ask the question; is this something that supports my writing or work being available entirely locally on my computer?

If not, i am not interested.

I am a strong believer in the file over app philosophy as championed by people like Steph Ango.

But this philosophy is not a new one, Ink & Switch proposed and coined the local-first software term and ideology, and the idea has gained continued strong support over the years, so much so that a large part of the draw of software like Obsidian is the local-first approach.

You should retain ownership

The idea that your writing, tasks, content, etc. is entirely sitting in the control of a company, that you not only own this data but have to deal with whatever limitations that they impose or are impose upon you; from online/offline access to export or even import formats, does not sit well with me. But it is not something we can always control.

I use Gmail at work, even though i deeply dislike giving any of my data to Google or having my emails on their platform. This is something that is outside of my control, but where we do have the opportunity to do so, we should wrestle control away from closed-source and proprietary software that locks you in on cloud platforms.

Quote When you store your writing in one company’s unique format, then you need that program to access it. Then the economy takes a turn, they go out of business, and your work is trapped in an unusable format. Your writing should outlive you. Depending on companies is not an option.

Derek Sivers

No app lasts forever, and the fact that over the years i’ve lost many pieces of writing, thoughts i’ve had, photos i’ve shared, and more have languished and died in servers i have had no control over pains me. We should not suffer at the ephemeral hands of corporate overlords.

Derek Sivers encourages writing plain text file, and this is indeed the way. A markdown file or a .txt file, regardless of the exact file type, will serve you better as a future-proof source. Plain text files have lasted for over 20 years, and they’ll continue to last for another 20 years at least. Markdown is also widely supported and is at it basic level just a text file with a fancy dress.

Formats and exports

Certainly there are some amazing note taking and writing software out there that are appealing such as Craft Docs or even Bear, with beautiful designs, fancy features, and smooth editing experiences. But despite how gorgeous they are, they still lock you in on a specific format of their own choosing. Both support Markdown, and even offer ways to store your notes locally on your computer. However, they still fall at the last hurdle, neither offer direct files but rather either proprietary formats or as part of an sql database.

That’s not to mention the multititudes of apps that also offer exports, but are often either broken or completely odd formats. Notion, the popular note-taking workspace, is one of the prime examples of this. There’s been a number of discussions of how broken it is, and even suggested solutions for how to fix it with Markdown.

Quote Notion export is broken. Not slightly imperfect, not "needs some cleanup." It is fundamentally broken for anyone who expects their content to arrive on the other side looking the way it does inside Notion. Callout blocks export as raw HTML. Databases export as CSV files that lose every view, filter, relation, and rollup you configured. Images land in separate folders with broken references. Nested pages produce filenames stuffed with 32-character UUIDs that exceed Windows path limits.

The alternative is clear, where possible, insist on going for solutions that offer you direct access and ownership of your written content. Let’s not continue to be beholden to cloud platforms or proprietary solutions.

The AI angle

More than ever now there are, and continues to be, solutions that are local-first and this is only going to grow. We’re already seeing so many AI-related platforms and software that are re-discovering the value of plain-text files as an interface layer.

Whether it is for instructing with your AI-solution of choice or serving as content to feed into your AI, having local files available means your data is also not only portable by default but does not rely on any single AI-solution or platform. At the rate AI improvements and new use-cases are being made, having ownership of your content and the freedom to choose how you use it.

The irony of all these software companies and AI-solutions with their cloud services and closed-source apps rediscovering the value of simple and direct local-first solutions is not lost on me.

The local-first philosophy has been right about how our notes and writings should be applied. Turns out the rest of the tech-world is finally coming around to the truth.