Files outlast apps.

Steph Ango articulates this principle clearly: your data should outlive your tools.

The ancient temples of Egypt contain hieroglyphs that were chiseled in stone thousands of years ago. The ideas hieroglyphs convey are more important than the type of chisel that was used to carve them.

Apps don’t last forever. Services shut down. Formats change.

The only way to make sure your files will survive is to choose open, readable formats.

Ask yourself: “In 25 years, will I still be able to open this file?”

If your work lives in proprietary formats, locked in databases, or trapped in vendor ecosystems, the answer is no.