The real sting of this observation lies not in flattering your intelligence, but in naming the specific paralysis it counters: we treat existing systems—whether corporate hierarchies, technological standards, or social conventions—as though they emerged from some superior realm rather than from ordinary human choices made at particular moments. Jobs isn't simply saying you're smart enough; he's identifying the peculiar reverence we grant to inherited structures, the way a mediocre design can calcify into "the way things are done." Consider how a young engineer might spend months deferring to an existing software architecture before realizing it was built by someone hurrying through a project deadline, not by genius. That moment of recognition—*oh, these were just people*—is when you stop asking permission to improve things.