Prefer plain-text, tool-agnostic formats

Value. Wherever content can be stored as plain text or in an open, widely-supported format (Markdown, plain files, open JSON), prefer that over a proprietary or binary format tied to one application.

Why it matters to me. Plain text is both human- and machine-readable, diffs cleanly in git, and outlives any single tool - I can read it in cat, edit it in nvim, grep it, script over it, and still open it in twenty years when today's app is gone. It keeps my data mine, not hostage to a vendor's file format or a running service.

What it implies. This value generates concrete choices and principles: Markdown for prose over a WYSIWYG database; portable .excalidraw JSON over an app-locked drawing format; config as readable files over opaque state.

Tensions. Plain text sometimes costs convenience - a rich app UI, live rendering, structured queries. The resolution is usually a convenience layer over plain files (an editor or generator that reads the plain source) rather than moving the source of truth into the tool. When richness genuinely can't be plain (images, diagrams), keep the canonical form as open as possible and render from it.

Backlinks¶

The following pages link to this page:

• Building my visual PKB
• Federating my knowledge base as privacy-tiered OKF bundles
• Give every cross-cutting concept one definitional home
• Open Knowledge Format (OKF): findings
• Prefer FOSS software wherever possible
• Running this knowledge base on awiki
• Structure docs as the reader's task path - lead with action, defer rationale
• Teaching my agents to write better
• Values
• Wishes for a personal knowledge base
• Write in a calm, quantified, settled-fact voice - not a promotional one