Eureka! A big discovery! How many stories have you read about the inventor/artist/explorer who happened by chance on a great discovery? Consider this: maybe Isaac Newton DID get hit on the head by an apple, but he was already using that head to think, and think hard, about physics.
Allen Gannett, a big believer in Big Data, compiled a lot of data on great breakthroughs. And yep, there's a lot of perspiration before the inspiration.
He lays out his findings in the book The Creative Curve: How to Develop the Right Idea, at the Right Time. We revisit our 2018 interview with the author.