This essay by CW Hamming may be of interest. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/MathDrama/reading/Hamming.htm... Also, the work of James Austin, professor at Harvard Medical School on successful research. Marvin Minsky, legendary MIT professor, is also interested in the same subject but I don't have a reference. The "Random Walks of George Polya" is also related to the subject. Stanford math professor who specialized in techniques to solve advanced math problems.

This subject would perhaps make a great forum or separate website.