Instinct - evolved or better answer?

What if some degree of variation/experimentation is included in the "wiring"? I've met people with a wide range of "lateral thinking" ability, from those that can only follow a standard linear process to those that are always devising alternate processes to the standard, sometimes better, often not. I've often wondered if there was a genetic basis for these differences in lateral thinking, or if it was more a matter of nurture differences...In any event, it seems to me that lateral thinking/conscious choice traits would be advantageous (or perhaps even necessary) to the evolution of culture and new cultural attributes. [However, it would also seem that counterinstinctual(?) impulses would need to balanced, lest carriers of the trait run amock whimfully trying alternatives willy-nilly til their eventual demise.]That is, conscious choice as the "random mutation" of the meme world.