The value of a good lunch buddy

[S]ome lawyers in the patent department at Bell Labs decided to study whether there was an organizing principle that could explain why certain individuals at the Labs were more productive than others. They discerned only one common thread: Workers with the most patents often shared lunch or breakfast with a Bell Labs electrical engineer named Harry any quiet. It wasn't the case that Nyquist gave them specific ideas. Rather, as one scientist recalled, "he drew people out, got them thinking." More than anything, Nyquist asked good questions.

Jon Gertner, The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation (New York: Penguin, 2012), p. 135