Experience, research, imagination (a yoga tool box)

I've just completed Tony Parsons book "Starting Over". In an interview at the back of the book he reflects on what makes a novel. Experience (life as you have lived it), research (life as others have lived it) and imagination (life as you can imagine it).
I believe that with a little creativity these qualities apply in yoga. We rely on the experience of our teachers, the experience of a lineage or tradition and our own experience  We are able to constantly investigate and research the immediate effect of yoga in asana during a class and finally with imagination and vision we can alter our perception. So what does this mean? Our yoga toolbox is not so unlike the writers toolbox!