I think it happens fairly often. In the more mathematical realm in information theory, turbo codes came out of nowhere by people who were not experts in the fi

I think it happens fairly often. In the more mathematical realm in information theory, turbo codes came out of nowhere by people who were not experts in the field of FEC. Their efficiency far surpassed other methods of the time, to the point that their results in the conference paper were doubted. They didn't have any understanding at the time of why they worked well, they just published results. Lots of physical phenomena start as simple observations that are later worked into theoretical frameworks. The photoelectric effect comes to mind.