Nathaniel Whittemore

Now, this is such a big problem that obviously there are lots of intermediate solutions for this.

Docsend, for example, gives you the ability to update PDFs on the same link.

Collaboration suites like Google Docs are meant to give you tools so that everyone can be working off the same version.

But building things as a website is a more generalist solution to this set of problems.

Speaking of sending things off, distribution is the second problem that websites as knowledge work artifacts solves.

Downloadable files create friction.

You have to make sure that the place you're sending them works with the file format in question.

The person on the other side has to have the bandwidth to do the download.

That download then becomes part of the endless set of files that they eventually need to organize or trash on their computer.

And if they need to pass it on, they have to go through that whole process again.

A link does none of that.

It moves through email, Slack, a text, a CRM, a calendar invite, a newsletter, and it works the same on a laptop or a phone without anyone touching an attachment.

Problem number three that websites solve?

Navigation.

Every current type of downloadable knowledge work artifact has a navigation constraint.

Docs are linear.

Spreadsheets are tabular.

PDFs are paged.

Each one forces a structure onto every reader in the order that it was written.

Now, sometimes that's the goal, but knowledge work tends not to be consumed by one generic reader in one linear setting.