if the topics are constrained to the examples the author presented, then it might be better to save the 30min. At the same time, a big part of innovation relates on communicating ideas and comes from day-to-day interactions especially with people from different background/experiences. That is a block the author is imposing on himself by isolating - if there are others great minds at his/her workplace. perhaps finding a different group of people to have lunch with would increase the learning process and also giving space for cross-pollination of ideas.