implied advice [...] that it’s pointless to try to come up with anything original until you’ve consumed the entire field
If you avoid mistakes in seeing what the things you’ve come up with actually show, there is no downside to developing them except possibly wasted effort. And with some idea of what you are researching in place, obtained by trying to figure things out on your own, it’s easier to formulate further queries to the wisdom of humanity.
no credentials
Credentials and knowledge are somewhat independent, the relevant thing here is knowledge. For some questions, with insufficient knowledge it’s impossible to succeed in figuring out anything meaningful in reasonable time (as in, less than thousands of years), but for other questions this is not necessary.
If you avoid mistakes in seeing what the things you’ve come up with actually show, there is no downside to developing them except possibly wasted effort. And with some idea of what you are researching in place, obtained by trying to figure things out on your own, it’s easier to formulate further queries to the wisdom of humanity.
Credentials and knowledge are somewhat independent, the relevant thing here is knowledge. For some questions, with insufficient knowledge it’s impossible to succeed in figuring out anything meaningful in reasonable time (as in, less than thousands of years), but for other questions this is not necessary.