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The compelling ending of this article reads that:
Mankind can always pride itself for the giant leap with a small step. But remember, there is always a tea shop set up earlier.
I wonder if the metaphor "there is always a tea shop set up earlier" is an idiomatic phrase in English or in any other language? If it originates from another language, is there an English equivalent?
To be honest, the entire article is a little stilted, but just about manages to get away with it.
Neither quoted sentence is particularly idiomatic, but the overall intent seems reasonably clear.
The first, of course, is an awkward re-casting of Neil Armstrong's famously fumbled moon landing speech. Any adaptation of that will be instantly recognisable to most, and they will be able to extract any change of meaning based on that knowledge.
The second is based on the idea that no matter where you go thinking you are the first, someone will always have been there before you.
It's like finding a secluded beach after an hour's difficult hike and as you walk out onto the sand, you see someone else has managed to get a VW Camper van down there and is busy frying sausages and drinking beer.
… or there's already a beach bar … or a tea shop.
I suppose to paraphrase - you can be proud of how far you've come, but don't imagine you were the first to make this journey.
The blog post you linked quoted this. I'd expect most native English speakers would have heard it before, even if they wouldn't know where it was from. For example, "This new AI stuff doesn't really change anything--our business model is still the same. There's nothing new under the sun."
A potentially similar phrase is "The more things change, the more they stay the same".
This is an expression of sympathy, especially for a common mistake that many beginners make. For example, "You aren't the first college student to decide to stay up all night before the exam, and you won't be the last."
Somebody has already done whatever you were going to do, especially if it means that you won't get anything from doing it second. For example, "Hey, you know that app idea you had? Looks like somebody already beat you to it."
In the specific context of the linked blog post, this is similar. It means that it doesn't matter if your idea is great and original if you can't make it well, and that an unoriginal idea can be successful if the execution is great.
