Sometimes we do, but a lot of things get invented again, by a different giant (or midget) who didn't have time to read all the existing literature.

This is my biggest gripe with hardcore self-made/individualist evangelists. Pretty much everything anyone has ever achieved was because of the hard work and determination of thousands if not millions of geniuses and craftspeople whose work enabled the future.

That's true, but there's also something unique about being able to take an existing idea and turn it into something relevant and marketable. Look at everything Xerox did to advance the state of the art, and compare that with their inability to turn any of it into viable products. As much as it's easy to say "Xerox messed up", that diminishes the value added by the likes of Jobs and Gates when they turned those ideas into something valuable for the masses. (Which is there the money is, among other things.)

I'm not saying it's necessarily fair, just that there's value in that 'last mile' between a long line of development and the end user of an idea or product.

I don't think you observation is in contradiction to my anecdote. I appreciate the last milers as much as anyone.

Or on top of piles of corpses.

If you look around you at various safety systems, they were almost all paid for in souls.

The New London School and oderised natural gas is one example I've learnt of in the past year or so. But that's only one of very, very many.