Progress is not linear. Not every step is an advancement. It's possible for an entire field, and entire society to get lost en route to something nominally supe

Progress is not linear. Not every step is an advancement. It's possible for an entire field, and entire society to get lost en route to something nominally superior—or even to be led, by hucksters, into the weeds. But the especially tedious misconception you're espousing is the myth of the Randian hero. This model of "people who get shit done" obscures collective labor contributions, and romanticizes individual exceptionalism, while dismissing interdependence and systemic support structures. These special, few, "solitary geniuses" do not exist. What we have are plutocrats born into a privileged position and shameless enough to wield that privilege without democratic oversight or consensus. Such people truly get only "shit" done.