Imagine a massive mountain everyone can see.

Everyone can see "There's no way up the mountain!"

The vast, vast majority of people who try to make it up the mountain will die.

But the lucky few that make it through won't have realized how hard it was when they started!

The person who makes it up the mountain (if anyone ever does) will say "I didn't realize it was impossible, I just went up the mountain. If I would have known how impossible it was I would have never tried."

This is one reason Silicon Valley can find new peaks: a steady stream of bright eyed / bushy tailed young founders who don't know what they don't know.

The overall ecosystem can use that energy to sandblast at problem domains and find any hidden paths that exist.

Every so often there really is a hidden, specific path up a dangerous mountain.