[cout]

I wonder how many pieces of computing technology used today were put together in a single evening by a team of motivated developers. Rubygems, for example, was written in a couple of hours at the back of a hotel bar, then demoed (complete with network install and versioning) at Rubyconf the following morning.

As I age, I'm starting to believe that the best technology is often built this way, rather than stewing for years in an ISO subcommittee. Limited development time can lead to features that provide the greatest value for the time spent.