I recently read a book on the life of Faraday and Maxwell[1]. Very interestingly, Maxwell modelled the famous equations of Electromagnetism by imagining them to be similar to how heat flows. To me that is a great take-away: Trying to model a phenomenon based on an existing phenomenon (within reason, of course) and changing the world with it!

[1]https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18240286-faraday-maxwell...

Edit: some formatting