I first heard this question from Manish Sabharwal in an interview, but it actually comes from Jonas Salk: the scientist who gave us the polio vaccine and refused to patent it.
“The most important question we must ask ourselves is, ‘Are we being good ancestors?’”
It’s a question meant for humanity, but it fits snugly into our professional lives too.
In the workplace, being a “good ancestor” isn’t about legacy plaques or grand titles.
It’s about solving problems so no one has to fight the same battle tomorrow.
- Choosing professional excellence—doing the work right, even when no one is watching.
- Practicing transparency—so decisions are clear, and no one wastes time untangling them later.
- Using clear thinking and articulation, so solutions can be built upon, not buried.
I’ve seen this most clearly in designing the system architecture. A great architecture enables any use case to be built with ease. But here’s the thing that no one will say, “Wow, the architecture is brilliant.”
They’ll only notice the use cases it powers, the problems it solves, and how seamlessly it all works. Reasoning behind the design decisions. The best impact you can make is the one that quietly benefits people you may never meet. These are the invisible gifts of a good ancestor.
So ask yourself:
When someone steps into your role or project years from now… will they silently thank you for making their life easier?