Solving the "elf superiority problem"

[PhoenixPhyre]

I don't want to nitpick, but how do you draw the line between "learning" and "new ideas"?

Is it as simple as external vs internal origin?

Pretty much. Learning from someone else produces basically no new anima (absorb some, create some, net basically zero), while figuring out something yourself or transforming someone else's idea into something new is a net producer. Even reinventing the wheel counts as long as behind a veil of ignorance (you didn't know you were doing it or didn't copy/learn directly from anyone). For most wizards (especially), learning a spell from a book or scroll counts as learning, while developing spells for yourself (for PCs, these are the two free spells on level-up) counts as creating new ideas.