Banal thoughts necessarily also dominate clever minds

From Avoid Boring People, the autobiography of James D. Watson. At the end of each chapter he summarizes key lessons he has remembered from that period of his life. Page 70.

2. Banal thoughts necessarily also dominate clever minds.

I used to frequently position myself at meals near Max Delbruck, hoping to profit from sharp dissections of new experiments or criticisms of badly thought out ideas. On some days, conversation sparkled, particularly when a visitor brought new facts or gossip about friends from his European past. More often, however, Max found it more compelling to discuss a student's new girlfriend or who had beaten whom in tennis that afternoon. I was discovering that most high-powered minds do not daily generate new ideas. Their brains mostly lie idle until the input of one or more new facts stimulates their neurons to resolve the conundrums that stump them.