Discovery is easy with the right context
In hindsight new ideas often seem obvious; the imaginative leaps that lead to the new ideas are often not that large if you are thinking about problems in the right way. The key insight – it is context that really matters.
Could this explain why people often have the great new idea at the same time? The "time is right" for an idea when the cutlure has loaded the correct context. What is culture other than shared context?
This model could also explain the mechanism of serendipity: browsing physical book shelves or having interesting wide-ranging conversations are productive precisely because of the non-trivial colilisions of context they create.
Could this also explain why our most productive thinkings often have wide-ranging interests/expertise?
Favors generalists over specialists