A silly pet idea I have is that while time didn't literally pass slower, there was less overall entropy in the world back then. There were fewer people working on fewer things, so less new things happened overall. Today there are more people working on more things, so the rate of new things happening is higher, and thus the perception of time passing faster.
And we are all connected, so there are not only twice as many people on the planet, and more people with computers, but also people in China, India, Brazil, and Russia are able to collaborate instead of being completely isolated in their own locales.
or the TPM role hadn't been invented yet
What's the issue with TPM? Do you hate security?
Ah I wasn't talking about "Trusted Platform Module", I was talking about the technical product/project manager job, which tends to create meetings and various distractions for developers