The discovery of gravitational waves is arguably one of the most spectacular breakthroughs in the history of physics. But how are such breakthroughs achieved? As Jürgen Renn explains in this video, the path to this discovery was neither a linear progress nor a sudden paradigm shift, but the result of a long-term transformation of knowledge involving surprising twists and detours. General relativity, from its inception to its current advances, was the work not only of a "lone genius" but also that of a community that explored the untapped potential of general relativity. This potential still leads to new insights and results, as evidenced by spectacular observations obtained by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).