It always happens. You go to buy something. You've got a list of all the necessary parameters, you've set a budget and you've short listed the merchants. Then you end up back at home with a really neat gizmo that looks sharp, costs way too much and doesn't really do what you need. Emotions are to blame as they take over your reasoning and lead you on a completely unexpected journey.

Simon Mitton shows similar a similar rational for Fred Hoyle in his biography Conflict in the Cosmos, Fred Hoyle's Life in Science. In it is a very storied career that sometimes proceeds in expected directions while other times progresses along wholly inexplicable paths.

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/book_review_conflict_cosmos.html?372005