Insight happens early and once or twice, experimenting happens later and more consistently.
Great contributions to a field such as science or make great inventions fall into two broad categories: those arrived at through Insight and those arrived at through experimentation.
Insight breakthroughs happen early on in people’s careers. Just as they start to get familiarized with their domain they use their fresh perspective or ideas to “see” some new way of framing a problem. This leads to breakthroughs of Insight. People are not able to have a long career filled with Insight breakthroughs, because they require that fresh perspective. Once you are established in your discipline you become accustomed to thinking about it according to your understanding, and thus large new insights are very rare in the middle to late career.
Insight breakthroughs are also often associated with multi-disciplinarians who have experiences in a wide range of experiences. Like in Range - Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World .
Experimental breakthroughs, by contrast, happen LATER in the lifespan of a career. They are arrived at through tinkering and iterating. They are also more volumous. You may hope to have many experimental breakthroughs.