Seems more like all this stuff is tied together in tricky ways. Why bother learning to read if the only supply of written text is people hand-writing it on frag

Seems more like all this stuff is tied together in tricky ways. Why bother learning to read if the only supply of written text is people hand-writing it on fragile paper or parchment, so getting even a single page of written text is super-expensive? Why bother figuring out how to make cheap and durable paper when all text must be hand-written by the few who had time to learn how? Why bother making a way to write faster when paper is expensive and nobody knows how to read? People need to solve all of those, and have some reason for solving each one independent of the others, before the written word can even start to proliferate widely.