We stand on the shoulders of giants.

Nothing here was invented from nothing. The languages, the protocols, the editors, the decades of work that made any of this possible — we inherited all of it, mostly from people we will never meet and cannot repay.

We say it in four letters because it is meant to be said often. It is not a humility pose. It is a working rule, and it shapes how the system is built.

What it obliges

• Credit travels with the work. Every published thing carries who made it, verified when it is written — so contribution can't quietly evaporate into a company byline.
• Reasons are kept, not just results. Whoever comes next inherits why a decision was made, not only what was decided. That is the shoulder we are trying to be.
• Finished work raises the floor. What one build learns becomes the starting point for the next one, instead of being rebuilt from scratch.
• Borrowed things are named. We use other people's work constantly. Saying so is the minimum.

The phrase is old — Newton wrote his version of it in 1675, and he was quoting someone older. That is rather the point.