Society's Biggest Lie

Society’s Biggest Lie

Excuse me for ranting, but I really need this off my chest.

We’ve built an entire culture on a dangerous myth:
that progress comes from process, committees, and frameworks.

Whether in science, politics, art, or technology, we keep pretending that systems create breakthroughs.
But history shows the opposite — almost every leap forward began with a single person, or at most a pair, working with focus and vision.

Consider these examples:

• Unix → two guys at Bell Labs
• Linux → Torvalds in his dorm
• Python → van Rossum over Christmas break
• Einstein → special relativity, alone in 1905
• Darwin → natural selection, written in isolation
• Marie Curie → pioneering radioactivity research with Pierre
• Beethoven, Picasso, Miles Davis → single minds reshaping entire fields
• Political and social movements → usually sparked by a handful of determined people, not by committees

Breakthroughs don’t start in boardrooms.
They don’t come from certified frameworks.
They don’t wait for consensus.

They come from one or two people with vision, focus, and the stubbornness to keep at it.
Only afterwards do institutions step in — to standardize, industrialize, and scale what those individuals created.

The lie matters, because when we pretend that process is the source, we build systems and cultures that optimize but never originate.
We forget that coding, science, music, literature, and even social change are all the same thing: craft, vision, and expression — work that begins in attics, garages, backrooms, or notebooks.

The biggest lie is that progress comes from process and committees; in truth, it always begins with one or two focused people, and only later gets industrialized.

Unless society learns to recognize this, it risks shooting itself in the foot — celebrating process while suffocating the very individuals who create the breakthroughs we all depend on.

So here’s my plea:

let’s not forget the power of individual creativity and the importance of nurturing it.
Let’s create space for visionaries to thrive — in labs, in studios, in classrooms, in garages.
True progress often starts with a single spark of inspiration.
Because without that spark, all the process in the world won’t light the way forward.
— Me, ranting on a Tuesday evening in September 2025