You could have invented PageRank

PageRank, the algorithm behind Google's success, operates on a simple principle: web pages have "reputation" that they share with linked pages, and a page's total rank is calculated from the minimum baseline reputation plus the reputation it receives from incoming links. The article demonstrates that this foundational algorithm is conceptually straightforward enough to be implemented in just a few lines of Python code, suggesting that discovering it required understanding basic principles rather than extraordinary complexity. By understanding these core concepts, anyone in 1996 could have theoretically invented the algorithm that made Google a dominant search engine and generated enormous wealth.