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I think you made a good point: what's the point of saying things that have been said before? Aren't we just wasting time? Recreating the wheel is not what we want to do yet it is hard to say something that has not been said already (perhaps with much more eloquence). It seems like it would be more productive to familiar oneself with the writings in a particular focused topic then see if the understanding of those writings take you to a new height. Newton stood on the shoulder of Giants and saw farther than he otherwise can. 

Some might argue that the process of working out previous thinkings is valuable in itself. The individual ownership of the knowledge is more important than the collective accumulation of knowledge.