Sidis accepts a teaching position at Rice University in Houston, Texas. However, he finds the academic environment stifling and the continued media attention overwhelming. He leaves after less than a year.

Sidis returns to Boston and seeks anonymity. He takes on a series of low-paying, menial jobs, including clerical work and operating adding machines, in an attempt to escape public notice.

Sidis is arrested for participating in a socialist May Day parade in Boston and charged with assault. He is sentenced to 18 months in prison. His parents intervene and have him committed to a sanatorium for a period.

Sidis continues to work at various unfulfilling jobs, moving frequently to avoid detection. He writes under pseudonyms on subjects ranging from cosmology to streetcar tickets. He maintained a great interest in collecting streetcar transfers, writing a book on the topic. He also developed his own language, Vendergood.

Sidis publishes "The Animate and the Inanimate", a book exploring the potential for reverse entropy and the origins of life and the universe, under his own name. While scientifically unconventional, it showcases his continued intellectual curiosity.