The trick is that novelty is in the mind of the beholder. One's old ideas can seem very new to anyone who isn't deeply enmeshed in the field. To make a splash, you have to persuade others that that the idea is new, even if it isn't.* To do this, the press secretary in one's head can be strategically wrong, “believing” the idea is new and portraying it in this light. Then, consumers of the idea—editors, other scientists, and the public—can thereby be made to think so as well. I'm not saying that these people are lying—I'm saying that, by design, the press secretary modules are getting it wrong.
