It is said that “necessity is the mother of invention.” It is an idiom that has been adopted from the more specific insight of Greek philosopher Plato. In Republic, Plato writes, “A need or problem encourages creative efforts to meet the need or solve the problem.”
In the modern era, some have dubbed these creative efforts, even the word creativity itself, as “intentional discovery.” I know it seems odd to refer to discovery as intentional, until you look at the number of discoveries that have moved the human race forward that were uncovered by accident.