5 ms·

so even the smartest of us are susceptible to magical thinking and superstition it seems... :)

• Etheryte 10y ago
  On the contrary, if you read further into it you will find he worked to find a scientifically provable reason for the phenomenon.
• fizx 10y ago
  Isaac Newton was an alchemist and an occultist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton%27s_occult_studies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton%27s_occult_studie...
• mannykannot 10y ago
  There is also Bohr's horseshoe, an amusing way to have it both ways: http://laphamsquarterly.org/magic-shows/miscellany/niels-bohrs-lucky-horseshoe http://laphamsquarterly.org/magic-shows/miscellany/niels-boh...
• Inlinked 10y ago
  Once you start looking for it, it becomes fairly common :) August Kekulé's work on the structure of benzene came to him in a dream: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Kekul%C3%A9#The_ouroboros_dream https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Kekul%C3%A9#The_ourobor... Ramanujan credited his mathematical skills to a Goddess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan#Personality_and_spiritual_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan#Personalit... When Einstein met Tagore, "Einstein: Then I am more religious than you are!": https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/04/27/when-einstein-met-tagore/ https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/04/27/when-einstein-met-t... Pierre Curie: "There is here, in my opinion, a whole domain of entirely new facts and physical states in space of which we have no conception." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Curie#Research https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Curie#Research Kurt Gödel proved God exists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_ontological_proof https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_ontological_pro... And take a look at the recent popularity of Discordianism and Thelema among programmers.