My rule is that you never get something difficult right the first time. Usually you can't, or I can't, get something easy right the first time.
John Holbo at Crooked Timber has a post which discusses, among other things, how long it took Western humans to start using "spaces" in their writing. (Languages which use pictographs obviously don't have the problem.)
For example: "overthecourseoftheninecenturiesfollowingromesfallthetaskofseparatingthewordsincontinuous
writtentextwhichforhalfamillenniumhadbeenafunctionoftheindividualreadersmindandvoicebec
ameinsteadalaborofprofessionalreadersandscribestheseparationofwordsandthussilentreadingor
iginatedinmanuscriptscopiedbyirishscribesintheseventhandeighthcenturies...'
I wonder whether the space didn't contribute to the growth of productivity?
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