But surely that's not true of (for example) learning one's colors in German? Synthesis of ideas and innovation comes in areas of high ambiguity, subjectivity,

But surely that's not true of (for example) learning one's colors in German? Synthesis of ideas and innovation comes in areas of high ambiguity, subjectivity, and risk and no amount of spaced repetition will turn you into a Bucky Fuller or Raymond Loewy or Alfred Sloan. There you must substitute a voracious appetite for discovery and experimentation.