Someone mentioned this earlier - "The Innovators" by Walter Isaacson is pretty much this thesis exactly. Progress comes from building on previous work, usually

Someone mentioned this earlier - "The Innovators" by Walter Isaacson is pretty much this thesis exactly. Progress comes from building on previous work, usually collaboratively. Now, I think it's fair to say that there are "geniuses" and it's perhaps a little uncharitable to claim that we shouldn't look up to them at all - but there is certainly more than one dimension to progress.