Q: Why did the Egyptians feel like they needed to develop a writing system?

Q: The human memory plays tricks. People tend to dramatize the past, and their role in it, for the sake of a better story. The Egyptians began to notice that the history of their land -  their discoveries in math and astronomy, the heroism of ancient kings, the disagreements that led to agreement and eventual enlightenment - was becoming malleable. Facts would change from story to story, even from sentence to sentence, depending on the speaker.. Fearing that centuries worth of wisdom would be lost, they developed a crude system of symbols which would correspond to words which they all agreed would mean specific things, all in order to preserve their accumulated knowledge for the benefit of their children and their children's children and the children beyond them. With a written language in place, they hoped to prevent future generations from stumbling around the desert wondering what time of year it was, why there were triangles buried in the sand and what animals were more worthy of worship than others.

The ancient Egyptians were fascinating. You can read all about them on my iPad, once I get it back from the Mac store. I dropped it in the toilet.  Until then, let's try and hit that bird with this empty beer can.