A lot of the advances we have in science came not because people rigorously studied data and then came to conclusions, but because people had flashes of insight

A lot of the advances we have in science came not because people rigorously studied data and then came to conclusions, but because people had flashes of insight, and then looked for data to validate or invalidate their opinions. We need this variety of uninformed opinion because it is from one of those nuggets that new things will be invented. Science is just philosophy combined with statistical data.