Comment by bonoboTP
Prolific professors who publish dozens of papers at scientific conferences year after year also have similar methods. There's a pattern, there's a method. There's always some novelty of course but it's a production line nevertheless. (I'm talking about real successful academics with real status in the community, not fakes).
It also reminds me of the MrBeast document from the other day.
Once you hit the formula, you keep grinding it. Consistent high performers almost all do it, no matter the field. Whether it's songs, books, YouTube videos, science papers, blog posts, paintings, consultants, etc.
Of course science papers are a team effort but so are novels and music and paintings. Hans Zimmer didn't single handedly compose his recent film scores, he has lots of people working for him on the project. Master painters used assistants. Stephen King isn't typing every character himself.
Amd then there are one hit wonders who are at the right place at the right time, saying what needed to be said in that moment, and then sink back into obscurity or become a parody/tribute of their own self as they try to milk that one insight from their 15 minutes of fame.
Outlier level work by one person that keeps being novel in truly surprising ways, on a consitent basis, is so rare that there are probably only a handful of instances.
As someone who gave hundreds of talks and wrote at least hundreds of articles etc. over the years, I basically agree. Some I look back on as being particular insightful or clever. But you pretty much have to mostly crank at least to a minimum standard. And, yes, there's a lot of reuse in various ways.