Standing on the Shoulders of Giants — and Everyone Else

In a 1675 letter to Robert Hooke, Sir Isaac Newton wrote, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Had he instead changed the words “seen further” to “produced anything,” he might have been speaking for any productive person.

Every act of production, even in the simplest of economies, happens only by using previous acts of production. To plow a field, to record a song, to build a mainframe computer all require specialized equipment, materials, and knowledge. Consider what it takes to build and use a modern combine, for example.

This fact describes the essence of economic development and only compounds over time. The complex products and services today rely even more on prior production than did the simpler products and services of the past.

The same fact does not, however, imply that producers today deserve no credit for the thought, labor, and action required to build on what was done before. Quite the contrary. It just means that today’s producers honor those Newtonian giants — and everyone else besides — for bequeathing us new possibilities because of the work that they did yesterday.