People say that it was the combination of people with different skills that made CS Lab special. For example, Joe used to say that the critical part of system design is to identify the "error kernel" that has to be correct and then make sure that some specific person (Magnus Fröberg? Per Hedeland?) is the one who writes all of that code. Some people just have a different knack and can do things that other people can't.

Great that Francesco has the special skill to capture the spirit of those times so well as a blogging ambassador to the rest of us now so many years in the future. I bet nobody was conscious that they needed this particular skill at the time.