I was trying to explain to a friend the other day that everything that is exists is observable in some way, regardless of whether or not we can observe it. A simple example of this would be bacteria that went undetected by us until we had the power of a microscope to observe them, which was in 1676.
This particular line of thought reminded me of John Forbes Nash, an American mathematician that refused to work on any dissertation unless it was an original concept. It look him a while but he later worked on his original concept and he transformed economics as we know it today.
We need originality in this world and we also need people willing to improve the work on what that others have worked done.
I find people who turn their skills to solve problems in other domains fascinating - this is especially true if they are not even that interested in the other field of study, they just want to use their skills to do something useful.
People that help others that they didn't intend to have done a level of good that can only be described as saintly.