Links / Interview

• How the head of Obsidian went from superfan to CEO

  № 91

  

  Steph “kepano” Ango, the CEO of Obsidian, was interviewed by Casey Newton for Decoder. I appreciate how he—and in turn, Obsidian—thinks about building their product. They’re a small team and, while they’re ambitious, they’re not looking to raise (or make) hundreds of millions of dollars.

  We’re not trying to take over the world. We’re not trying to be the next Microsoft. That makes it a lot easier to make long-term decisions that we feel are better for ourselves or for our users. It’s the tool that we want to use all day long. So, it’s okay if people leave.

  Obsidian uses Markdown, and all files are local. That means you can take them wherever you go, or even edit them in whichever tool you prefer. It’s no walled garden, and if Obsidian the company ever ceases to exist, your files are fine.

  I know Kepano has been on this line of thinking for a long time. I remember researching similar things years ago and stumbling upon his thinking on File over app, which is a philosophy I can get behind.

  I’ve started using Obsidian this summer and while the UI is a tad clunky for my taste, I can appreciate the system they’ve created. There’s a lot to appreciate in the interview, too; on note-taking, file systems, design, and AI, among other things.