I think this is the phenomenon that forms the basis for Gladwell's BLINK. It took me a while to learn that almost everything I have heard or seen has already b

I think this is the phenomenon that forms the basis for Gladwell's BLINK. It took me a while to learn that almost everything I have heard or seen has already been stored. The problem of memory is in retrieval. This also applies to creative work. When you have seen quite a lot of things, it ends up influencing stuff you could swear was original.