First Versions Archives - understand-culture

Shakedown Cruise

A new Navy ship goes on a shakedown cruise. Merriam-Webster defines a shakedown as “a testing under operating conditions of something new (such as a ship) for possible faults and defects and for familiarizing the operators with it.”

The Navy then schedules time to fix what the test found. Its maintenance manual defines a Post Shakedown Availability as a shipyard period “assigned to correct deficiencies found during the shakedown cruise or to accomplish other authorized improvements.” The carrier USS Gerald R. Ford was commissioned in July 2017. In July 2018 it began a planned 12-month post-shakedown availability, combined with other shipyard work.

From Strawman to Steelman

In 1975 the Department of Defense started a “Common High Order Language” program. A working group set out to define what one programming language for the military should do. Its first draft of requirements, in April 1975, was called Strawman.

“The requirements were widely distributed for comment throughout the military and civil communities.” Each round produced a firmer version: Woodenman, Tinman, Ironman and finally Steelman, released in June 1978. The programming language built to these requirements became Ada.

The term is still used in American business. A “straw man proposal” is “a brainstormed simple draft proposal intended to generate discussion of its disadvantages.”

Posted Before Review

arXiv, the online archive for scientific papers, received its first submission on August 14, 1991. Paul Ginsparg started it. He was then a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He wanted to automate the sharing of physics papers with a mailing list.

Many researchers now post manuscripts there before they send them to a journal. In August 2016 the journal Nature Physics wrote that manuscripts were being posted and “feedback from the community” received “before submission to a journal.” By then arXiv held more than 1.16 million papers. The Nature journals encourage authors to post their manuscripts before submission.

The Hamilton Mixtape

On May 12, 2009, Lin-Manuel Miranda performed at a White House evening of poetry and music. He said he was working on a “hip-hop album” about “the life of someone I think embodies hip-hop … Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton.” The audience, including President Obama, laughed. “You laugh, but it’s true!” Miranda said. Then he performed the opening number. At the time it was called “The Hamilton Mixtape.”

The work kept developing in stages. Lincoln Center presented a preview on January 11, 2010. A workshop at Vassar College in the summer of 2013 covered the first act and three songs from the second. Hamilton opened at the Public Theater on February 17, 2015, and on Broadway on August 6, 2015.

Rated Weak

“The Seinfeld Chronicles” first aired on NBC on July 5, 1989. NBC’s research department rated the pilot “weak.” Its memo said: “No segment of the audience was eager to watch the show again.” It added: “You can’t get too excited about going to the Laundromat.”

NBC still ordered four more episodes. The executive Rick Ludwin “killed one of the Bob Hope specials” to pay for them. Another three years passed before Seinfeld became “a Top 5 ratings smash.” TV Guide reported in 2014 that it had earned $4 billion worldwide.

Twelve Poems, Then Almost 400

Walt Whitman published the first edition of Leaves of Grass in 1855. It was a slim book of 12 poems, printed without the author’s name on the title page. By the end of his life the book held almost 400 poems. The ninth and last edition, called the “deathbed” edition, appeared in 1891–1892.

The Library of Congress describes how he worked. Whitman “continuously altered the contents.” He “added new poems, named or renamed old ones,” “reworded lines, and changed punctuation, making each edition unique.” He regarded each version “as its own distinct book.”

Thirty-Nine Endings

In a 1958 interview with The Paris Review, Ernest Hemingway said that he rewrote the last page of A Farewell to Arms “thirty-nine times before I was satisfied.” He was asked what had stumped him. He answered: “Getting the words right.” In 2012 his publisher, Scribner, printed an edition with 47 alternate endings found in his papers.

The line “The first draft of anything is shit” is often credited to Hemingway. It comes from Arnold Samuelson, who spent ten months with him in 1934. Samuelson’s memoir appeared in 1984, three years after Samuelson’s death. Quote Investigator finds the account plausible, but says the long delay “does not inspire a high degree of confidence.”

A Recall by Download

In January 2014 Tesla recalled 29,222 Model S cars after a charger plug was suspected in a garage fire. The main fix came as a wireless software update. The car now detected charging problems and lowered the charging rate. Tesla also mailed owners new plugs with a thermal fuse. Elon Musk wrote on Twitter: “The word ‘recall’ needs to be recalled.”

Tesla had sent such updates since the car’s launch. The first one, in October 2012, added a “creep mode.” Version 7.0, in October 2015, improved Autopilot, including Autosteer and Autopark. MIT Technology Review wrote in 2014 that “it has become common for Tesla to send out updates that address problems and enhance performance.”

The First iPhone Had No Apps

The first iPhone went on sale on June 29, 2007. It had no App Store. Users could not copy and paste text. In October 2007 Steve Jobs wrote: “Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone.”

The App Store opened in July 2008. In its first weekend, users downloaded more than 10 million applications. Copy and paste arrived with iPhone OS 3.0 on June 17, 2009. When Apple announced it in March, the TechCrunch headline read: “iPhone to finally get cut and paste.”

Rough Drafts in the Standards

The Common Core State Standards include this anchor standard for writing: “Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.” California’s version for fifth grade begins: “With guidance and support from peers and adults.”

The standards were released in June 2010. By August 2010, 34 states and the District of Columbia had adopted them. The Encyclopedia of Education notes that process approaches “have become common.” In them, teachers give students opportunities to “brainstorm ideas, complete initial rough drafts, receive peer and teacher feedback, and revise and proofread.”

Some have worried that teachers may be paying “insufficient attention to the quality of students’ written products.”