Stephan Ango, CEO of Obsidian, shares his journey from entrepreneur to leading a thought tool app. He dives into the concept of evergreen notes that make abstract ideas memorable and explores the challenges of merging freedom with cohesive design in digital tools. The discussion highlights the evolving relationship between creators and their tools, emphasizing the importance of innovative software while navigating the prosumer model. Plus, listen in as he reflects on the significance of Obsidian Canvas for free-form idea exploration.
Obsidian strikes a balance between accessibility and depth for user-friendly and personalized note-taking experiences.
Stefan Ango combines Swedish and Asian techniques in his cinnamon roll recipe, influenced by his multicultural upbringing.
Obsidian prioritizes user needs while providing customization options, aiming for long-lasting use in a changing digital landscape.
Deep dives
Making Obsidian Accessible and Intuitive
The focus of Obsidian is to strike a balance between being accessible for new users while allowing for infinite depth and complexity. The goal is to create a user-friendly surface level experience while also providing ample room for deep and personalized exploration.
The Interplay between Personal and Cultural Influences
Stefan Ango of Obsidian shares his experiences growing up in a multicultural household and how it influenced his passion for baking. He discusses his Swedish cinnamon roll recipe, which combines Swedish and Asian techniques to create a unique and delicious treat.
Transition from Entrepreneurship to Obsidian
Stefan Ango talks about his previous entrepreneurial experience and how he found Obsidian. He highlights the importance of aligning with a product he truly believes in and the decision to embrace the journey with Obsidian instead of starting a new venture.
Prioritizing User Needs and Longevity
Obsidian focuses on prioritizing user needs, ensuring a smooth and fast text entry experience, and excellent linking capabilities. The team embraces plain text file storage and extensibility as core principles, aiming to create a tool that can last for a long time in an ever-changing digital landscape.
Balancing freedom and cohesiveness in Obsidian's plugin ecosystem
Obsidian offers a plugin ecosystem that allows users to customize their experience, but it also presents challenges in terms of maintaining cohesiveness. The trade-off between customization and a curated experience is similar to the difference between Apple's locked-down iOS and Android's more open-ended system. Obsidian aims to provide more freedom than traditional tools, which may lack malleability, while still offering guidance to developers through documentation. The goal is to strike a balance between intuitive design for new users and the ability for experienced users to delve into deep and complex customization.
Guidelines and curation in Obsidian's plugin directory
The Obsidian team maintains guidelines in the plugin submission process to ensure security and privacy. They prioritize open-source plugins and prohibit telemetry collection. While the guidelines are firm on certain principles, Obsidian rarely encounters bad actors. They focus on helping developers create intuitive and cohesive plugins that align with Obsidian's ethos. As the platform evolves, the team aims to improve the visibility and promotion of plugins that align with Obsidian's vision, but without restricting developers' freedom.
Quotes from famous people or books can turn a feeling or a concept into a memorable chunk of text—how can we do the same for our own ideas? Stephan is the CEO of Obsidian, and he joins Mark and Adam to discuss notes as personal memes, the balance between freedom and cohesion in plugins, and why it's so hard to be messy in digital tools. Plus: why “tools for thought” rubs Stephan the wrong way.
