Yes, this is true. For example:
I got the word "meme" and the concept of a cultural "virus" from the book "The Selfish Gene", by Richard Dawkins. (Yes, I own a copy of it and have read the whole thing.) I'd read that before memes had come into popularity online, so I still think in his broader definition.
The general idea is the groups rise and fall with the combined strength of their genes and memes; a combination of sexual selection and tradition, basically.
Note to self: Read that book, sounds intriguing.
Audiobook perhaps...?
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Being broadly well-read and rooted in a particular tradition can actually free up your mind to be more creative in a particular field or application.
You'll find yourself naturally cross-applying or daisy-chaining ideas together, that previously seemed unrelated, allowing you to create novel combinations.
This is the opposite use of reading, than looking toward a leading solution for a particular problem and allowing it to override all of your own solution ideas.
I think this is why women who subscribe to the concept of wifely submission often seem radical, reactionary, or even libertine in their ideas about other topics. Digging up the classics, rampant libertarianism, crunchy hippy gardening, etc.
They're rooted in this one, major aspect and they simply don't have to think about it, anymore. So, they are free to think about absolutely everything else and much hilarity ensues.
What do women think about, when they aren't jostling for power with their lover?
They're thinking about how to take over the world, of course.
Every "new" idea is actually just a novel combination of very many old ideas. By working through one or several intellectual traditions, one can find the possible branching points and tie-ins with other threads of thought. That's where new branches emerge.
This is the best definition of "meme". Memes are the mental building blocks of culture, and culture is what makes humanity so flexible in adapting to new challenges and environments.
