Standing on the shoulders of giants in the snow

I was just out having a walk in the snow-covered park next door to me, and noticing that it was a lot easier to tread where others had already been, rather than make my own way through pristine, white, untouched snow.

And this led me to remember the saying by Newton ‘if I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants’. I reflected on the fact that I am treading in others’ footsteps as RichThinkers grows and develops, and these footsteps allow me to see further and in a different way than before, and for that I’m very grateful to those going before me.

Not that they even necessarily know more, or can do it better, but just that they have already marked out a path. I didn’t always think like this though — I used to desperately try to come up with an original idea, forgetting that most ideas are sparked off by others’ ideas. But we all get to share, to benefit, to walk forward with a different viewpoint because of others going before us. And that is a great, rich thinking kind of thing!