1. Not everyone and their dog was getting into tech; there was a lot of low-hanging fruit, and a lot lower bar for what was considered "impressive." 2. The bar

1. Not everyone and their dog was getting into tech; there was a lot of low-hanging fruit, and a lot lower bar for what was considered "impressive." 2. The bar for impressive is now "insanely complex." 3. The tools were shittier, but more flexible, and you sucked it up and learned to deal. Now? The majority of our tools are overengineered in all the wrong places, because their contributors wanted to build something "impressive" (using today's standards) -- rather than useful and practical. We had jQuery (a library) and PHP (a language modeled after the hit Microsoft classic, Minesweeper), and that was enough. Now you need React/Vue/whatever framework to build an "impressive" website (because you'll look like a clown if your website isn't as "polished" as your competitors -- who are also using newfangled frameworks) It was easier to build shit back then, because the standards and expectations were saner.