Plain text should be the default. Not an alternative. Not a niche choice for technical users. The default.
This isn’t a new argument, but AI has made it undeniable. Every piece of knowledge stored in a proprietary format is a piece of knowledge your AI tools cannot access. Every note locked in Notion, every document trapped in a closed system, every insight buried in an app’s database - invisible to the tools that could help you use them.
We’ve accepted proprietary formats as normal. They’re not. They’re a tax on our future selves and a barrier to collaboration with the tools we’re building.
The Industry Problem
Organisations store critical knowledge in systems designed for features, not longevity. Confluence wikis. SharePoint documents. Proprietary databases with custom schemas. The knowledge exists, but it’s locked behind authentication, APIs, and formats that require specific tools to read.
When a team wants to use AI to search their documentation, they discover the problem: the AI can’t read it. Not without custom integrations, API access, and data pipelines. Knowledge that should be instantly accessible requires engineering effort to surface.
This is backwards. Documentation should be readable by default. The burden should be on tools that want to restrict access, not on tools that want to enable it.
Plain text solves this. Markdown files in a git repository. Text documents on a shared drive. Formats that any tool - current or future - can read without permission, conversion, or integration work.
The Personal Problem
The same applies to personal knowledge management. We’ve been sold a vision of productivity apps that “just work” - syncing across devices, offering rich formatting, providing clever features. The cost is ownership.
Your Notion workspace is Notion’s workspace. Your Evernote notebooks live on Evernote’s servers. Your Apple Notes exist at Apple’s discretion. You’re a tenant, not an owner.
This mattered before AI. It matters more now.
When I point Claude Code at my denote directory, it has access to years of accumulated knowledge. Project notes. Book highlights. Half-formed ideas. Not as a vague summary I provide in a prompt, but as searchable, readable and usable context.
This works because plain text is the universal interface. No APIs. No exports. No conversion. Files on disk that any tool can read.
If my notes were in Notion, Claude Code couldn’t touch them. Years of accumulated knowledge, invisible to the tools that could help me use it.
The Compounding Effect
Every note I take in plain text becomes more valuable over time. As AI tools improve, their ability to leverage that knowledge improves too. My years of org-mode notes aren’t just a personal archive - they’re a growing asset.
Knowledge in proprietary formats doesn’t compound this way. It becomes less valuable as AI advances, because it remains inaccessible while everything around it becomes more capable.
The Real Question
The question isn’t “should I use plain text?” The question is “why am I using anything else?”
Proprietary formats should be the exception, justified by specific needs. Plain text should be the default, assumed unless there’s a reason otherwise.
Your notes are for you. Your knowledge is yours. Store it in a format that respects that - and that lets you collaborate with whatever tools come next.