Brian Josephson is an interesting example, his discovery of the Josephson effect at the age of 22 won him a Nobel physics prize. At about the same time that the physics prizes started to pour in for his discovery he switched hard into studying telekinesis, meditation and psychic powers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Josephson)
Now, specifically in his case it is tempting to reason as follows: If he spent the rest of his career working in physics he would always be primarily known for that thing he did right at the beginning. If he wanted his new work to match the success of the old he had to go for the high-risk high-reward stuff. Telekinesis probably doesn’t exist, but if it does… This is my interpretation of his strange change in direction. Other people might instead suppose that the early success gave him the space to work on more-or-less whatever he wanted at a university, and what he wanted was the new age stuff.
Brian Josephson is an interesting example, his discovery of the Josephson effect at the age of 22 won him a Nobel physics prize. At about the same time that the physics prizes started to pour in for his discovery he switched hard into studying telekinesis, meditation and psychic powers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Josephson)
Now, specifically in his case it is tempting to reason as follows: If he spent the rest of his career working in physics he would always be primarily known for that thing he did right at the beginning. If he wanted his new work to match the success of the old he had to go for the high-risk high-reward stuff. Telekinesis probably doesn’t exist, but if it does… This is my interpretation of his strange change in direction. Other people might instead suppose that the early success gave him the space to work on more-or-less whatever he wanted at a university, and what he wanted was the new age stuff.