I recently listened to the “What is Original?” episode of NPR’s TED Radio Hour. One of the guests discussed Benjamin Franklin – specifically, that he didn’t patent his inventions. He wanted others to develop them further. The guest added that it was common for people to gather and share ideas in coffeehouses since such locations were conducive for that kind of activity (and that was a thing, since it was the Enlightenment). That helps explain the explosion of novel ideas and new approaches – people with different backgrounds and experiences were synthesizing those into something more.
It seems that, with so much specialization of fields, there aren’t many coffeehouses anymore. Silos, sure, we have lots of those.
We need more coffeehouses.