Chris Wanstrath reflects on a past experience from about a century ago at a company where developers received email notifications of code commit differences, leading to chaotic and lengthy email threads due to the "reply-all" practice. The introduction of commit comments changed this by allowing developers to leave comments directly on commits or specific lines, streamlining communication and organization. This feature, inspired by the Django Book, was considered a significant improvement, as it allowed comments to be visible in feeds and marked in commit logs, enhancing the overall development process by making discussions more manageable and accessible.