As a one-time scientist, I think Asimov may have been tricked by extreme selection bias on "That's funny..." utterances. It almost always precedes a crushing realization that you have fucked something up and probably wasted a lot of time.
You're probably days down exploring that explanation before the eventual "holy shit" (that I never really had the benefit of experiencing).
You're probably days down exploring that explanation before the eventual "holy shit" (that I never really had the benefit of experiencing).