I've seen this play out outside of the internet too, in a way that didn't immediately connect with nostalgia. There's often a time where a startup takes invest

I've seen this play out outside of the internet too, in a way that didn't immediately connect with nostalgia. There's often a time where a startup takes investment and then ramps up the hiring. They take on more people, move to a brand new office, and start adding in things to help deal with the sudden scaling. This will push many of the early employees away or at least contribute to a feeling that they're no longer working for the same company. Meanwhile, all of the new hires are coming in and they've only seen the sparkly new office and the adjusted culture, and they love it! They have no notion of what the business was like when it was smaller and more intimate. I remind myself of this when I start comparing the present to the past, because I feel like that longing for what once was is a source of great misery if you leave it unchecked. Things might actually be better, yet still you yearn for the old and the familiar.