Cross-Domain Transfer
topic
Cross-domain transfer is the cognitive application of a solution, framework, method, or insight developed in one field to a problem in a completely different field — the importation of a proven approach from its domain of origin into a domain where the analogous problem has not yet been addressed in this way, generating creative novelty in the target domain not through invention from nothing but through the structural translation of what already works elsewhere.
Role
Cross-domain transfer is responsible for a disproportionate share of the most significant creative innovations in human history — with the germ theory of disease being transferred from chemistry to medicine, the assembly line being transferred from meat processing to automobile manufacturing, and machine learning being transferred from statistics to every cognitive domain. David Epstein's research in 'Range' documents that the people most likely to make productive cross-domain transfers are those with wide experience across multiple domains — the analogical generalists — rather than the deep specialists whose narrow experience limits the source domains they have available to draw from.