Consider My Octopus Teacher, an Oscar winning Netflix documentary by filmmaker Craig Foster. Over a year, Foster dove daily in the kelp forests near his home in Cape Town, forging an unlikely bond with an octopus. As she began to trust him, she displayed remarkable behaviors—shaking his hand with her tentacles, playing with fish, and even embracing him. The deep connection between them became undeniable.

Through this relationship, Foster made discoveries about octopus behavior that even marine scientists had never documented. He observed how the octopus could walk on two tentacles, camouflage in shells, and strategize on the spot. But his true moment of innovation came when the octopus disappeared. Desperate to find her, he had a breakthrough: What if I track her the way we track wild animals on land? He decided to try this novel idea and in a week, he found her.

This novel idea—tracking an ocean creature using patterns in the underwater wilderness—had never been attempted. No marine biologist had considered it. Why did Foster, a filmmaker, hit upon this ingenious idea? His deep empathy for the octopus expanded his intellectual capacity, pushing him to think in unprecedented ways. His emotional connection allowed him to transcend conventional wisdom, unlocking creativity that even experts had not achieved. In that moment, he was no longer just a diver or filmmaker—he became an innovator.