Does It Have To Be Proprietary?
The bottom is falling out of the world as we realize how big tech companies have over the last decades repackaged and cheapened everything that makes us humans and sold it back to us. As we try to recover these emotions and modes of interactions, let's recognize that they are still there. And that the practice of using a proprietary slick presentation to take away simple, but rugged modes of life has started way early.
Ask yourself this: Why do we need Word documents, and why do we need PDF files? We do we need vendors to sell us platforms that store mostly text and image files? Most of what we share can be simple text, maybe with some markdown decoration, or simple image files that can be shared freely and in almost any way you like. Yet almost nobody even realizing that anymore showcases how firmly our routines have been co-opted and channeled into the pockets of Microsoft or Adobe.
Next time you are about to start a Word document (or Google Doc, or LibreOffice document), ask yourself first: Could this just be plain text? And then (learn to) open and edit a text or markdown file instead.