It is a well-established fact (not acknowledged enough) that in journalism there are only eleven basic ideas. The reason journalists over the age of twenty-five get cynical and start to fall over in public houses is that in their cradles they have been cursed with a particular kind of limited intelligence. They are bright people, but a Bad Fairy had ensured that they are bright enough only to discover eleven basic ideas for themselves. What they are not bright enough to notice is that everything they do has been already done before. Then one day they realize - to the dismay of the Really Good Fairy who gave them the brains - that they have run out of ideas. Disillusioned, they are obliged to stand back and watch as other, younger people - the fairy-dust still sparkling on their shoulders - start to discover the eleven ideas all over again.
(Lynne Truss, Making the Cat Laugh)