Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The Key to Innovation

When you look at great geniuses like Newton, for example, it can be easy to imagine that their ideas and work came exclusively out of their minds. But that is seldom how it works.

Innovation doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Regardless of how unique a work seems, if you look a bit closer, you will always find that the creator mastered what other people had already figured out.

We get to see further than our predecessors, not because we have a greater vision or greater height, but because we are lifted on their gigantic stature.

There are giants in every field. Don't let them intimidate you. Take from anywhere that resonates with you and inspires or fuels your imagination. Build upon it and improve it. Doing this will make your work authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent.

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.

However, if you take a look at any of the original texts, you will find them dry, unengaging, and lacking any sort of poetic language. So he took these 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?