The ultimate lesson of the question was that detailed prior knowledge was less important than a way of thinking. - David Epstein

Ed Catmull requires directors to pitch three ideas, not one.

One idea creates attachment. Three create perspective.

With multiple options, people compare instead of defend.

That is what leads to better decisions.

Almost none of the students in any major showed a consistent understanding of how to apply methods of evaluating truth they had learned in their own discipline to other areas.

Whether chemists, physicists, or political scientists, the most successful problem solvers spend mental energy figuring out what type of problem they are facing before matching a strategy to it, rather than jumping in with memorized procedures.