Props to Giants

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of really tall people.”

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Isaac Newton in a 1675 letter to Robert Hooke

"Standing on the Shoulders of Giants" is a phrase I hear more and more today. I remember being struck by the appropriateness of the phrase, immediately understanding the underlying analogy— nobody could climb so high without help, nor understand so much without the exhaustive work of many others in the past, laying the foundations of understanding.

Newton’s quote is poetic, but the concept goes back much further back in time. This metaphor for the accumulation of human knowledge and the progress of science has been at the heart of some of our greatest leaps forward. Knowledge is not born in a vacuum. It is built upon the works of those who came before us, shaped by their insights, discoveries, and teachings. From the realm of physics to the world of computing and technology, countless innovators have stood on the shoulders of the giants who paved their way. And as we mak…