On picking software for the long run
I've always enjoyed using good software. Convenient tools. The newest thing. Over time, I've come to realize that none of this matters if you don't own your data. Or if you have to worry that a company providing the platform you're on goes out of business. What matters first and foremost is ownership and independence, now more than ever.
I've had a journey over the last years of finding the values I care about most. In 2018, I chose to write my posts in Markdown to ensure they'd stand the test of time. Back then, MDX was all the rage, but the more components you could add, the more components you would have to maintain. I chose to limit my content to the lowest common denominator every software could agree on. In 2020, I moved to Next.js as I saw Gatsby nearing its end of life. GraphQL was very exciting for some time, and a rich pipeline of plugins was promising, yet it fell victim to complexity by trying to solve all use cases. Earlier this year, I moved from Vercel to my own server. And yesterday, I moved this blog from Next.js to Ghost, the last move in a series of steps that reinforced my commitment to owning my data and remaining independent.
Look, I don't think the world would end if I lost my content. It might be freeing to start from scratch, actually. But the latest string of vulnerabilities, as well as constant breaking changes convinced me it was time to settle on a boring yet reliable technology. I've learned the hard way that less is more. Maybe I'll host text files on a web server one day, and I'll be happy with it.
Another area I care about a lot is my collection of notes. I've been a happy Notion customer for five years. I admire the team's work in building one of the best products that helped me think and store my knowledge. And yet, I'm afraid of the day the company is acquired or the priorities change away from providing the best experience to seeking rent, as countless other companies have done in the past. Obsidian is an amazing alternative that may lack a feature or two but gets better every update. And the best part about it? Your notes are stored as Markdown, on your device.
We have the luxury of choosing the software we use. With every day that passes, it gets easier to choose an alternative that respects your choices. Luckily that doesn't mean you have to give up craftsmanship or polish anymore.