Modern technology is made up of pre-made “black boxes.” If you open an iPhone, for instance, most of the stuff inside is just high-tech mystery stuff that was created to put in iPhone and used nowhere else.
This is the inside of an old radio, technology cobbled together from readymade pieces–bits of wire, a plastic knob, a few condensers, etc.
Maybe today everybody is trying to think “outside the box” because the stuff that’s inside the box is just too darn confusing.