Thor Heyerdahl famously believed that America was colonized from the east. He built a papyrus boat and crossed the Atlantic from Morocco to prove it was possible. It was not the first time he was wrong.
> He was certainly a “doer”. His theories met fierce criticism from academics though.
It seems the privileged place some people give to 'doer', and their decision to define the hard work of academic research as not 'doing', produced the wrong answer. Thor might have done better with another approach.