So I guess, in this context, if anything, I am an experimental innovator.

I tweak and change things, sure, but mostly I am following a system – trying to quantitatively produce enough subjective content to find quality at the end of it all.

And I could be wrong, but don’t people that “formulate a big idea and set out to execute it” still have to experiment and innovate along the way?

The time at which we reach our heights of originality, and how long they last, depends on our styles of thinking. When Galenson studied creators, he discovered two radically different styles of innovation: conceptual and experimental. Conceptual innovators formulate a big idea and set out to execute it. Experimental innovators solve problems through trial and error, learning and evolving as they go along. They are at work on a particular problem, but they don’t have a specific solution in mind at the outset. Instead of planning in advance, they figure it out as they go. To paraphrase writer E. M. Forster, how can I know what I think until I see what I say? According to Galenson, conceptual innovators are sprinters, and experimental innovators are marathoners.

-Adam Grant, Originals