Second is GitHub - the first few hundred commits of many successful open-source projects. It is a wonder to see sprawling codebases starting at its first commit, and plodding its way over years before gathering momentum.
e.g.
Wayback machine:
- Airbnb (2008): https://web.archive.org/web/20080310025433/http://www.airbed...
- Uber (2010): https://web.archive.org/web/20101126114649/http://www.uberap...
- Twitter (2006): https://web.archive.org/web/20061127012643/http://twitter.co...
Show HN:
- Analytics.js / Segment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4912076
- Dropbox: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863
https://www.wolfstad.com/2008/12/my-top-5-websites-of-2008/
I think expectations have evolved and the minimum standards of aesthetics in 2020 presents a higher bar. I wonder if an MVP that looked like that would work in 2020? I'm guessing the bar these days is at least a Bootstrap UI.
You don't notice it if you're subscribing/following the comic, until you jump back to an earlier strip and see how much less skilled the early work was.
Compare this: (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3) to this version of the same strip, drawn much later: (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1601). That’s the same artist. There was no abrupt change in style, either, the artist’s style just slowly changed over time.
Almost as large an improvement can be seen by comparing this first strip: (https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2000-06-12) with the same strip, redrawn much later: (https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2020-07-27). Same thing there; same artist, no abrupt change in style, just slow improvements over time.
The creator stuck with it though and the quality improved dramatically and pretty quickly.
I think it's actually from 2009 though, since wikipedia says that was the first episode? It was just uploaded later I guess.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Joe_Rogan_Experience
Still, it's crazy how much video has improved in quality, and exploded in popularity, since just 2009 or 2013 ... damn.
I guess this is a little like early bloggers in the early 2000's who were already writers in other mediums.
The people who are really successful are the ones involved in the old paradigm (multiple TV shows in Rogan's case), AND who actually embrace the new paradigm.