Sometimes a better strategy can win over more intelligence. For example, making a smarter wagon wheel is nice, but is it practical? Having a better strategy and a broader set of mental models can help discover something new or help to solve a mathematical or scientific puzzle.
To a person who uses hammers and nails to solve most problems, this person will use this model for almost any problem. Someone expert in mathematics will try to apply mathematics to solve a social issue, but this may not work.
These are some of my comments from an article: Mental Models: How to Train Your Brain to Think in New Ways. This article takes many examples from how Richard Feynman solved hard problems.