Dotfiles were a mistake
Unix has a clever trick for hiding a file from being displayed by the ls
command or other file browsers: just prefix the file name with a period
character. Many applications use this fact in order to place hidden files or
directories in the user's home directory, usually containing settings, cached
files, persistent data and whatever else developers might come up with. This
practice has always struck me as just plain wrong, and I am glad that my
sentiment was confirmed by Rob Pike years ago.