Nobel, I don't know if I would agree with you when you say those brilliant minds that created great and advanced inventions used conventional thinking. Look at the example of Copermico and Galileu: on the contrary of the conventional Catholic thinking from their times, they unconventionally came out with these great ideas and theories that are in a large extent responsible for the progress of our civilization today.
So, I think your description of conventional thinking here is not very accurate.
