> when you're not a genius and you do things for the fun of it it's very probable you'll end up wasting your time. This is why usually you have advisors that help you to find important problems that need to be solved.

Also add if there are not great examples to learn from. Most radical ideas require mastery of the topic. Incremental work can be done copying and simply adding one on top. Advisors have gone through all of this experience. Most people underestimate power of good mentors.