I think you're missing the point. The s-expression thing was just intended to be an illustrative example. I'm not actually advocating for it (at least not her

I think you're missing the point. The s-expression thing was just intended to be an illustrative example. I'm not actually advocating for it (at least not here). All I'm saying is that asking specifically why things are the way they are is more likely to lead to good ideas than just "asking dumb questions". (And note too that even with a heuristic that improves your odds, coming up with good novel ideas is really hard and happens only rarely.)