The “unhealthy communication” theory. In order to have breakthrough ideas you need to talk the right amount to others. Not too much. Not too little. “Fake presence” (i.e. phone calls, high latency video calls, messaging) is cheap, plentiful and socially satisfying. So we communicate. More so than we ever have before. Maybe over-communication distorts original thinking. What if a modern day Einstein doesn’t come up with relativity because he never fully composes his ideas in long form? Instead, he sends half-baked concepts to Max Planck over WhatsApp. Does he evolve less independent thinking as a result?
And one by one, startups are built around concepts that have always been there but were never really looked into.