For the longest time, the only way to write was to use these: 

Then people moved on to these:

That worked pretty well, until these came along:

And suddenly people could buy these:

Pretty soon people were writing with these:

And the system worked pretty well for a while. Until these came along:

And now everyone is reading with these:

But absolutely none of this could have happened without this:

So when you think about it, the alphabet is the most amazing invention of them all.