I think sewing machines would count? They certainly got a hell lot more "portable", but the basic design hasn't changed much since the 1880s. Those things are little mechanical marvels
this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2025
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Maybe not perfect upon conception, but after a couple of decades from common adoption, the bycicle really didn't change much. Sure, you can use lighter and more advanced materials, you can add an electric motor to it (though I wouldn't classify it as a bycicle) but you can probably take a 100 years old bike and it would work just as good as a modern one.
It also too about 100 years to reach the modern design of rubber tyres and a drive train, with the rider sitting slightly forward of the rear axle and well behind the front wheel.
The pointed stick.
No, it was later improved by using different materials, better tools to make it and hardening it with fire.
Maybe FM synthesis, it revolutionised the sound of the 1980s and music production as a whole
You.
Potato peelers. The ergonomic handle was a big step forward, yes. But the basic design hasn't (and likely won't) change.
Wasn't expecting this answer. Can you elaborate?
The 3.5mm audio jack. It's so fundamentally simplistic from a manufacturing standpoint and circuitry standpoint that any headset you throw at it will work identically without fail (the key innovation being the speakers or headphones where the analog signal is sent to).
Technically 1/4β jacks were first. 1/8β only to make 1/4β smaller.
Saw a post just today with a 1000 year old folding chair. Looked pretty much identical to the ones used today. Lost the post but kept the picture. 
Microwave oven. It sort of just...appeared, and the design didn't change much.
In my Flat we still have a microwave that does not have a rotating plate. Insteadt it has a spinning rotor in the roof that deflects the waves in order to cook food evenly. It works well but it is needlessly complicated compared to modern microwaves.
Most microwaves have a spinning wave stirrer in addition to the rotating plate. From the description here, it just sounds like either your plate rotation motor is broken or you've got a weirdly simple microwave.
This is the first time I've heard that they have a wave stirrer. I've never seen one in person.
Weirdly simple. It does not have a rotation motor. It is quite old.
On a high level, all simple machines.
The wheel
The lever
The pulley
Etc.
All other machines (except maybe things like computer chips) are just a variation of simple machines, or a combination of them.
The Bic pen. Sure, you can make it better, but then the price has to go up. You can still buy a nearly unchanged Bic pen from any office store for cheaper than any other writing tool, nearly identical to what they looked like when they were first invented.
I'll add Bic lighter to this list too.
What else does Bic make? π€
I'll see your Bic and raise you Zippo!
Just got my first one a while back, I bought it 2nd hand and it's 7 years older than me and works better than any lighters I've borrowed off people over the years.
Replacement parts and even completely new lighter inserts still fit the original cases from the 1940s until now. And if something does break beyond you ability to repair, They got a lifetime warranty with no proof of purchase needed!
I had a chrome Zippo XIV, one of the models you just don't fuck with.
I loaned it out one day to light fireworks. Somehow they overheated and ruined the flint wheel..
Anyways, if I catch you swapping Zippo parts, I'm gonna melt Frosty the Snowman..
I was curious too so I looked it up.
Pens. Lighters. And razors for shaving. Mostly the single use ones.
But also
BIC has drawn criticism for maintaining its business operations in Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
:C
Old refrigerators before all the ice makers were added.
But super energy inefficient in comparison to what we have today.
The MIDI protocal. The technologies that use it have evolved in all sorts of ways, but the protocol has remained unchanged.
MPE and MIDI 2.0 would like a word zir
Thatβs fair. But the fact that MIDI 1.0 isnβt going away anytime soon shows how good it was from conception. From Sweetwater:
Because MIDI 2.0 coexists well with MIDI 1.0, itβs likely MIDI 1.0 devices will continue to be produced in the future if MIDI 2.0βs features are not needed for a particular application. In developing MIDI 2.0, backward compatibility with MIDI 1.0 was always a priority.
MIDI 2.0 is not about replacing the original specification but about adding features that enhance the spec with features users have wanted almost since MIDI 1.0 appeared.
The best inventions do progress with backwards compatibility
Paper clips.
[off topic?]
I can't remember the exact quote, but Robert A. Heinlein said of the DC-3 that it was the best airplane ever built, and that the only way to improve it was to completely redesign it.
I just like the idea that some things are perfect the way they are.
I know Heinlein had his problems, but in highschool I loved his books.
The line is in 'Glory Road,' a great fantasy book that takes pretty much every fantasy trope and kicks it to the curb.
Dinner plates. Wooden, marble, ceramic or whatever it's made from, it does it's job perfectly.
EDIT: Yes, I'm hungry
Do they make marble dinner plates? Would be cool
ramps
deep-frying
the D-pad
Since you mention the d-pad. It was patented, so all the big companies had their own legally distinct spins on it. Nintendo has their cross; sega had a circle thing; Sony had discrete buttons, Microsoft had a different circle thing.
The Nintendo patent actually expired a number of years ago now, so nowadays the cross is showing up more places.
It was patented? Fucking hell, today I learned
I don't think QR codes have changed at all. Only the tools we use to scan them have
Oh, but they have, and they still are.
Did you know that you can halftone dither two different but same size QR codes on top of each other?
I wish I had a link to the article handy, but yeah I've tried that myself and it totally works! You basically get a 50/50 chance of one or the other code scanning. It's literally two QR codes in one!
And no, that's not some new special QR code format either, it's basically taking advantage of the nature of the scanners plus the built in error correction.