It doesn't help that in our field the context for many of these past achievements is quickly lost and forgotten. You can't just say "I did X in Y by using Z":

It doesn't help that in our field the context for many of these past achievements is quickly lost and forgotten. You can't just say "I did X in Y by using Z": you need to begin by explaining that once upon a time there used to be a thing called Y, and on that thing it used to be very hard to achieve X, but in those ancient days there was also a tool called Z, etc.