People think that computer science is the art of geniuses but the actual reality is the opposite, just many people doing things that build on each other, like a wall of mini stones.

Genius is just increments stacked

We tend to imagine breakthrough moments as lightning strikes—one brilliant person in a room having an idea that changes everything. The reality of how things actually get built is messier and more human. Someone solves a small problem. Someone else notices that solution and builds something slightly different on top of it. A third person takes both ideas and combines them in an unexpected way. Eventually, you have something that looks impossibly complex, but it's really just accumulated increments.

This matters especially now because we're surrounded by myths about "genius" that make ordinary progress feel worthless. You see someone's polished final product and assume they knew exactly what they were doing from the start. But most of the time, people are just tinkering—failing, adjusting, stealing good ideas from others, and moving forward one small step at a time. The wall of mini stones doesn't look impressive until you step back and see how high it's gotten.

The practical takeaway is that you don't need to be a genius to contribute something real. You just need to actually show up and do the work, stay curious about what others have figured out, and add your own small stone to the pile. The most creative people often aren't the ones with the biggest individual insights—they're the ones paying attention to what's already there and asking "what if we tried this differently?"