Andreessen on the Birth of Newspapers

Marc Andreessen is beginning a series on the birth of various media forms, starting with newspapers. I love this kind of discussion, reminding us that history as we live it is very different than we often imagine it to be. events we eventually call history do not feel like history at the time, AKA it always feels like we're at the front of time.

The idea of a newspaper, or a movie, or a television show, was not handed down on stone tablets from Mount Olympus and simply carried forward by people who said, "Oh yeah, great idea!"; rather, the forms of media we see today are in all cases the result of a mad and chaotic frenzy of experimentation, uncertainty, and enterpreneurial effort.

UPDATE: Still don't feel like I'm describing that feeling right.