[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]  K Srinivas Rao [@sriniously](/creator/twitter/sriniously) on x 3051 followers Created: 2025-07-20 16:28:15 UTC I study the history of software because most people think code innovation happens in a vacuum. They see React and think Facebook just invented components. They miss the decades of work on MVC patterns, the failed attempts at web components, the slow evolution from server-side rendering to SPAs, the quiet advances in JavaScript engines. When you know history, you see that every breakthrough is built on a mountain of failures and incremental progress. Git exists because Linus got angry at BitKeeper licensing. Docker works because Google needed better process isolation and FreeBSD had jails. React happened because Facebook's ads team kept breaking each other's code. Redux exists because Dan Abramov was frustrated with Flux boilerplate. TypeScript works because Anders Hejlsberg spent years on C# generics first. Node.js exists because Ryan Dahl was tired of Apache's threading model. MongoDB got popular because MySQL couldn't handle JSON well and hardware got cheap. GraphQL happened because Facebook's mobile apps were too slow with REST. Webpack exists because Tobias couldn't get his code splitting to work with existing bundlers. Babel works because the TC39 committee moves too slowly for real applications. Kubernetes exists because Google had Borg internally for a decade. Terraform happened because Mitchell couldn't provision AWS consistently with shell scripts. Electron exists because GitHub wanted to write desktop apps with web tech. VSCode works because Microsoft spent years learning from Visual Studio bloat. Slack got big because IRC was too hard for non-technical teams. Rails happened because DHH was building Basecamp and hated Java frameworks. Django exists because newspaper developers needed something faster than PHP. Laravel works because Taylor Otwell was frustrated with CodeIgniter's limitations. Express.js happened because TJ Holowaychuk wanted something simpler than Sinatra for Node. FastAPI exists because Sebastian couldn't get async to work nicely with Flask. PostgreSQL is good because IBM spent decades on relational theory first. Redis works because Salvatore needed a fast session store for his web app. Elasticsearch happened because Shay Banon couldn't get search working with Lucene easily. SQLite exists because D. Richard Hipp needed an embedded database for warships. RabbitMQ works because telecoms solved message queuing problems in the 80s. AWS happened because Amazon's infrastructure team got tired of manual server provisioning. Heroku exists because Adam Wiggins wanted Rails deployment to be git push. Netlify works because Matt Biilmann couldn't deploy static sites without pain. Vercel happened because Guillermo couldn't get serverless functions to work smoothly. Docker Compose exists because fig got acquired and developers hated YAML complexity. CSS Grid happened because designers were still using tables for layout in 2010. Flexbox exists because float hacks were breaking responsive design. Sass works because CSS couldn't do variables or nesting. PostCSS happened because autoprefixer was just one small utility that worked well. Tailwind exists because Adam got tired of naming CSS classes. This changes how you think about the future. Instead of believing in magic moments of genius, you start to see the slow currents that carry ideas forward. You notice when multiple teams are solving the same problem. You can spot which paradigms are ready to combine in new ways. History also shows you that most predictions are wrong. JavaScript was supposed to be a toy scripting language. Object-oriented programming was for big enterprise systems. The cloud was for startups. Mobile was just a smaller desktop. But the patterns are real. New abstractions always leak. They always find uses nobody expected. They always create new complexity that needs new tools. If you know this, you can navigate change instead of being surprised by it. Most importantly, understanding history keeps you humble. Every generation thinks it invented clean code. Every framework thinks it disrupted everything. But software is a long conversation between the living and the dead. We build on what came before, just like everyone who comes after will build on what we do now. XXXXXXX engagements  **Related Topics** [javascript](/topic/javascript) [meta](/topic/meta) [facebook](/topic/facebook) [Post Link](https://x.com/sriniously/status/1946970418696659053)
[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]
K Srinivas Rao @sriniously on x 3051 followers
Created: 2025-07-20 16:28:15 UTC
I study the history of software because most people think code innovation happens in a vacuum. They see React and think Facebook just invented components. They miss the decades of work on MVC patterns, the failed attempts at web components, the slow evolution from server-side rendering to SPAs, the quiet advances in JavaScript engines.
When you know history, you see that every breakthrough is built on a mountain of failures and incremental progress. Git exists because Linus got angry at BitKeeper licensing. Docker works because Google needed better process isolation and FreeBSD had jails. React happened because Facebook's ads team kept breaking each other's code. Redux exists because Dan Abramov was frustrated with Flux boilerplate. TypeScript works because Anders Hejlsberg spent years on C# generics first.
Node.js exists because Ryan Dahl was tired of Apache's threading model. MongoDB got popular because MySQL couldn't handle JSON well and hardware got cheap. GraphQL happened because Facebook's mobile apps were too slow with REST. Webpack exists because Tobias couldn't get his code splitting to work with existing bundlers. Babel works because the TC39 committee moves too slowly for real applications.
Kubernetes exists because Google had Borg internally for a decade. Terraform happened because Mitchell couldn't provision AWS consistently with shell scripts. Electron exists because GitHub wanted to write desktop apps with web tech.
VSCode works because Microsoft spent years learning from Visual Studio bloat. Slack got big because IRC was too hard for non-technical teams. Rails happened because DHH was building Basecamp and hated Java frameworks. Django exists because newspaper developers needed something faster than PHP. Laravel works because Taylor Otwell was frustrated with CodeIgniter's limitations. Express.js happened because TJ Holowaychuk wanted something simpler than Sinatra for Node. FastAPI exists because Sebastian couldn't get async to work nicely with Flask.
PostgreSQL is good because IBM spent decades on relational theory first. Redis works because Salvatore needed a fast session store for his web app.
Elasticsearch happened because Shay Banon couldn't get search working with Lucene easily. SQLite exists because D. Richard Hipp needed an embedded database for warships. RabbitMQ works because telecoms solved message queuing problems in the 80s.
AWS happened because Amazon's infrastructure team got tired of manual server provisioning. Heroku exists because Adam Wiggins wanted Rails deployment to be git push. Netlify works because Matt Biilmann couldn't deploy static sites without pain. Vercel happened because Guillermo couldn't get serverless functions to work smoothly. Docker Compose exists because fig got acquired and developers hated YAML complexity.
CSS Grid happened because designers were still using tables for layout in 2010. Flexbox exists because float hacks were breaking responsive design. Sass works because CSS couldn't do variables or nesting. PostCSS happened because autoprefixer was just one small utility that worked well. Tailwind exists because Adam got tired of naming CSS classes.
This changes how you think about the future. Instead of believing in magic moments of genius, you start to see the slow currents that carry ideas forward. You notice when multiple teams are solving the same problem. You can spot which paradigms are ready to combine in new ways.
History also shows you that most predictions are wrong. JavaScript was supposed to be a toy scripting language. Object-oriented programming was for big enterprise systems. The cloud was for startups. Mobile was just a smaller desktop.
But the patterns are real. New abstractions always leak. They always find uses nobody expected. They always create new complexity that needs new tools. If you know this, you can navigate change instead of being surprised by it.
Most importantly, understanding history keeps you humble. Every generation thinks it invented clean code. Every framework thinks it disrupted everything. But software is a long conversation between the living and the dead. We build on what came before, just like everyone who comes after will build on what we do now.
XXXXXXX engagements
Related Topics javascript meta facebook