Standing on the Shoulders of Past Giants
Simon Wardley explores how the standardization of components enables greater complexity and innovation. From Maudslay's screw-cutting lathe to Thomas Thwaites' toaster project, this passage reveals how the journey from novel to commonplace creates the foundation for new innovations.
Passage Details
Throughout our history, it has always been standardisation of components that has enabled creations of greater complexity. We are always standing on the shoulders of past giants, of past innovations, of past wonders that have become commonplace units.
That’s the game. What was once a marvel — electricity, the screw thread, the computer — becomes dull, invisible, and assumed. And in becoming dull, it becomes the platform for the next wonder.
This cycle is relentless. You don’t get to opt out. Novel things appear because someone is chasing advantage. If useful, they spread. Once they spread, they commoditise. Yesterday’s differentiator becomes today’s standard, and today’s standard enables tomorrow’s differentiator.
How It Plays Out
- Maudslay’s screw-cutting lathe (1800): turned bespoke nuts and bolts into uniform components. One nut now fit many bolts. That small standard unlocked ships, guns, machines at scale.
- Brunel & Maudslay’s block-making machines (1803): transformed pulley blocks from artisanal craft into mass-produced parts. Shipbuilding changed forever.
- Thomas Thwaites’ toaster (2009): tried to build one from scratch. Nine months, £1000, raiding microwaves and leaf blowers … the toaster lasted 5 seconds before bursting into flames. That’s the expected cost of ignoring standards.
What It Means for Strategy
When you look at your landscape, the choice is simple:
- Use standards. Most of your system should be built from components that are boring, reliable, invisible. Reinventing electricity or cloud hosting is madness.
- Pick your differentiators. The parts of your value chain where novelty creates real advantage. That’s where you fight.
- Or be the standardiser. Sometimes the smartest play is to industrialise the novel, to push the market into adopting your way as the new baseline.
The Strategic Lens
So when you map:
- Where are you standing on the shoulders of giants?
- Which parts are your differentiators — fragile, contested, temporary?
- Could any of them become the next utility?
💡 Lesson: Stand on the standards. Fight for your differentiators. Or be the standardiser.
That’s the lesson from this passage.