Hm, my understanding/memory of the history of internet technologies has a lot more "let's try this and see if it works" than your comment about the role of spec

Hm, my understanding/memory of the history of internet technologies has a lot more "let's try this and see if it works" than your comment about the role of specing it out and up-front design in the internet would suggest. I think there was actually quite a bit of people in labs just doing things, coordinating informally with people they knew personally in other labs. Yes, there was also, at various points and times, specs and big-picture thinking, sure.