Creativity in Science

"If no one followed up on original ideas, we would be buried in fresh starts going nowhere." Often in many cases during our studies here at UBC or from personal experience in practicum, we are told that we "don't need to reinvent the wheel". I do understand that we should utilize resources that are already well known, but in order to learn and adapt, we have to think outside the box sometimes. But that makes me think, if everyone is always striving for uniqueness or creativity, are they doing it to learn? Or just for the sake of finding something new that nobody else has?

"When you do not know anything about bird songs, you seldom hear them. But once you begin to learn about them, you suddenly hear birds where there was silence before." Just a personal anecdote that I have that's kind of unrelated to inquiry, I noticed this 'phenomena' when I was shopping for cars. I was looking for a specific car on craigslist and I started to see them on the road a lot more. Was it because I didn't notice before, or was it because I was now actively looking for them? This happens quite a lot in science when people are making observations. During their observations, they are ONLY looking to prove their hypothesis or see a specific result, and ignore anything else that may occur, a bit like selection bias.

"If I take my fledgling idea to an expert, he or she will explain that this is an instance of X, where X is an already established category." This quote from the article is something that I don't quite agree with. I may be interpreting it wrong, but it seems like Bavelas is saying talking to an expert is a negative thing regarding creativity. I feel that talking to an expert can really help give you a different perspective. They would be able to tell you if you're searching in the right direction. If you don't quite believe them and you feel strongly about your topic, then by all means continue your research. Personally I highly value the opinion of an expert, but I do understand how this could be a bad thing regarding creativity.