According to Dean Keith Simonton, true innovation requires that creators engage in a sort of Darwinian process in which they try out many possibilities without fully knowing what their eventual public reception will be. Especially during the idea generation stage, trial and error is essential for innovation. Simonton's theory does not mean that creators are working completely in the dark; ideas are not generated in complete ignorance of their ultimate value to society, instead, new ideas just aren't guaranteed to be fruitful.