179: The Philosophy of Obsidian, with CEO Steph Ango
Subtitle: State of the Workflow
Myke talks to Steph Ango, CEO of Obsidian, about building tools for thought, working without meetings, managing knowledge with markdown and links, and how a seven-person team builds software used by millions.
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Guest Starring:
Steph Ango
Links and Show Notes:
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stephango.com
Obsidian
Minimal Theme for Obsidian
How I use Obsidian — Steph Ango
Obsidian Web Clipper
How I do my to-dos — Steph Ango
Manifesto - About - Obsidian
If you're remote, ramble — Steph Ango
Always Bet on Text - graydon2
File over app — Steph Ango
Don't delegate understanding — Steph Ango
Caloric energy is precious — Steph Ango
Obsidian CLI
How the head of Obsidian went from superfan to CEO
Obsidian is a note-taking and productivity app that occupies the same "second brain" space as competitors like Notion — but in a lot of ways, it's also startlingly different. Obsidian's files are Markdown-based, stored locally on your own devices, and completely free to use.
Steph Ango, the CEO, is also different in a lot of ways: He's not an Obsidian founder, but instead came to the role from being basically a member of the fan development community. His take on software, productivity, and business is refreshingly old-fashioned in a lot of good ways, while he's also leading a very 21st century startup.
Read the full transcript on The Verge.
Links:
I’m joining Obsidian as CEO | Obsidian Blog
About Obsidian (Manifesto) | Obsidian
Narvar acquires Lumi (2021) | Narvar
After 15 years whipping the llama’s ass, Winamp shuts down | TechCrunch
Notion’s Ivan Zhao wants you to demand better from your tools | Decoder
Book Review: “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” | National Geographic
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt; our editor is Ursa Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
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