intersections

I was browsing for sources for the systems project and came across a quote from Neil Gershenfeld of MIT:

...'but "the bubbles kept interfering," ­Gershenfeld says. "It eventually occurred to us that we should use them." '

(http://www.technologyreview.com/article/18673/)

This "occurred to us" eventually turned into an article published in Science. The same sort of "knowing when to let go of your previous goal and follow the one that has sprung up before you" was described to me by an advisor at UTD, Fred Turner, when we were discussing what I might study if I went there for grad studies.

Perhaps it's a primary function of advisors (of academia in general?) to help relax an individual's pursuit of one particular goal so that he/she may take advantage of those random, tangential discoveries that pop up?