Maxwell Tabarrok, an economics researcher at Dartmouth College, runs the Maximum Progress blog, focusing on World GDP Over the Last Two Millennia and the challenges of idea generation. Tabarrok explores the burden of knowledge concept, arguing that accumulating knowledge can be both a barrier and a boon to innovation. While the burden of knowledge model has some explanatory power, Tabarrok provides counterexamples where past knowledge was not necessary to create something new. He also suggests that institutional decay in academia may be contributing to the challenges of idea generation. Ultimately, while the burden of knowledge is a compelling idea, it may not fully explain the complexities of innovation.
https://www.theseedsofscience.pub/p/against-the-burden-of-knowledge