John Salisbury, in 1159, wrote in his Metalogicon:

Bernard of Chartres used to compare us to dwarfs perched on the shoulders of giants. He pointed out that we see more and farther than our predecessors, not because we have keener vision or greater height, but because we are lifted up and borne aloft on their gigantic stature.

This has been a big inspiration for me. As I've grown in my career as a software engineer I've learned one major lesson. I don't have to know it all and most importantly there is really nothing new under the sun. This has broken down so many walls in my career. I can have the confidence that I probably don't have to come up with a new way to authenticate users or design a new pattern for an eventing system. These systems have been created and they have been created by men and women who are way smarter than I'll ever be.

This doesn't make things easier. It definitely has caused me to struggle to find these solutions but at the end of the day I can feel assured that whatever I'm working on has probably been done before so I push forward in study and research.