Seeger's mind

As we read and understand and interpret and 'conquer' one after another articles by Seeger, we surely learn a lot of his valuable ideas and concerns. But I'm more interested in the self-reflection part of this endeavor, which we do not usually touch upon. Such issues might include, most importantly, that I want to ask, how does Seeger's mind work to produce these distinctive and worthwhile studies? How does he manage to be so logic, so sharp in observation, and many other of his advanced qualifications as an outstanding musicologist, father and leader of American musicology, and the man who is very advanced in terms of foreseeing issues that will become major concerns in the future, even a hundred years later? Of course some of these might only be explained by the genius theory. The gift that every one of possess is certainly differentiated. Nonetheless, I still want to know, how can way extract some of the essence of his mind? That is to say, for instance, if you are a student of Seeger, you wouldn't just want to understand everything Seeger observed and thought and said, you should not satisfied by only understanding his ideas; in addition, what you want to learn is really how he got these ideas, how he observe things, how he analyze things in an absolutely smart and sophisticated way? How does his mind work, are there methodologies that we could rule out? Because once you're not with him, you've got to discover and create your own ideas and you wouldn't have him aside all the time. This is the thing I wonder. But I'm also skeptical: is this something we can learn?