179: The Philosophy of Obsidian, with CEO Steph Ango
Summary
Steph Ango, CEO of Obsidian, joins the Cortex podcast to discuss his journey from community theme creator to leading the small, remote team behind the popular note-taking app. He details Obsidian’s core philosophy of user-owned, linked markdown files and shares his personal workflow, which relies on progressive summarization and avoids traditional calendars or email. The conversation also covers the company’s intentional choice to remain small, operate without regular meetings, and maintain a user-funded business model that prioritizes long-term sustainability over venture capital growth.
Topics discussed
Introduction and Obsidian's core philosophy
How Obsidian works: Links, Markdown, and local storage
The origin story: From Minimal theme to joining the team
Personal workflow: Managing chaos with links and notes
The Wikipedia analogy and visualizing knowledge
Sponsor: FitBod personalized workout app
Task management, email, and living without a calendar
Company culture: Small team, no meetings, and async work
Sponsor: Sentry error monitoring for developers
Remote collaboration and asynchronous communication
Business model: Free app, sync services, and commercial licenses
Sponsor: Squarespace website builder
AI trends, data ownership, and the future of note-taking
Using AI for translation and localization at scale
Plugin ecosystem, CLI, and final thoughts
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