[sanmarzano]

I think I understand your point. But I could argue that a Model T was trying to do an impossible thing too. Like, contain a gasoline explosion to reliably create forward thrust in an affordable design. And make them quickly and reasonably safely. That was “impossible” before.

So I guess the lesson here is any first technology that is trying to do the impossible will be clunky. Fortunately there was a lot of car competition so we got much better cars. Assuming you exclude that industry’s successful lobbying to bend US society into car culture.

After thinking about this I think my analogy was correct but for a spectrum of different reasons.