Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The Key to Innovation

'Not invented here syndrome' is a term for situations when we avoid using ideas, products, or data created by someone else, and instead develop our own even if it is more expensive, time-consuming, and of lower quality.

The syndrome can also show up as a reluctance to delegate work.

Creating a new solution may be more exciting, but new solutions create new problems.

Steve Jobs is often shown as a revolutionary figure who changed how we use technology. In reality, he stood on the shoulders of the many unseen engineers, students, and scientists who worked for decades to build the technology he improved upon.

Much of Shakespeare's plays came from prior works.

• Hamlet took inspiration from Gesta Danorum, a twelfth-century work on Danish history by Saxo Grammaticus, consisting of sixteen Latin books.
• Holinshed’s Chronicles likely inspired Macbeth and King Lear.
• Parts of Antony and Cleopatra are copied verbatim from Plutarch’s Life of Mark Anthony.
• Romeo and Juliet was built upon the 1562 poem The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet from Arthur Booke.

He took these texts rather un-popular texts and turned them into works of literary art.

Why can't people come up with their own ideas? Why do many people come up with great ideas but don't profit from it?

Each new innovation or idea opens up the possibility of additional innovations and ideas. At first, there are limits, but those limits are continually expanding.

Technology, art, and other advances are only possible because someone else has laid the groundwork.

Shakespeare could write plays because other people had developed the structures and language that became his tools.

What new doors can you open, based on the work of the giants that came before you? What opportunities can you see that they couldn't?