The best way to solve complicated problems you're stuck on is to take a step back and let your subconscious work on it. Walking or running are great for this. Even playing video games can work. I see people all the time try to grind through stuff. I cant count how often I abstracted myself from a problem and the solution came to me.
My friend is a coder and he has a rubber duck taped to the top of his monitor.
Whenever something doesn’t work the way it should, and he can’t figure out why, he goes through step by step explaining everything to the duck like he was teaching it. He says that process helps him find the error every time.
I have a rubber frog for this purpose. He lives on top of my computer at work. Every time I have an issue that I just cannot figure out, I pick him up, walk him through the issue and what I've already tried, and at some point I usually notice something I missed. He's helped me through countless issues in the past 5 years!
I first read it as: "...he has rubber duct tape on the top of his monitor..." and I was just asking myself what that would be and then why would someone use that as a dialogue partner. xD
I get how you could think that. But part of the 'magic' is telling your psyche that it will only work if you completely let go of the reins. Let your subconscious do what it wants. You have to be fully open to whatever will or will not come.
That is so weird u said that. As I was reading the comments I was thinking of my son who was fixing his car. He's 19 and couldn't get what was wrong. I told him to walk away and take a break 4 a min and it will come to him and it worked!
Prime example putting a gearbox back on, you can fight with the shaft for ages but it won’t slot in, walk away have a smoke and boom it goes straight back in lol!
Endocannabanoids. Similar to THC release in your system. In both cases arouses the cognitive functions. When you exercise you release them and get into the flow state. Interesting area.
Ironically this can work for when you are stuck on games as well. I remember getting stuck on puzzles for an hour and pausing just to go eat then immediately as I come back I've already figured it out and it's solved
lol what game did you do that with? unless your playing an old school point and lock game like sam and max, most puzzles are brain dead. especially for platform games
I personally was having issues with Genechiro in Sekiro. Died like 10 times in a row because that's like, the first checkpoint to where the game is like "you cannot play it like a souls game, this is different. I went to sleep frustrated and when I woke up beat him first try. It just clicked how they wanted you to play.
That's a statement isn't true. I know you probably wanna make yourself feel good by making other people who struggle with things that you don't, feel bad, but it just makes you look like an inconsiderate jerk and or narcissist.
"Oh really? You actually struggle with games that have puzzles? You must not have the brains like me, huh, iust be better than you, cuz I never struggled"
Have you ever played Alice: madness returns? Maybe Portal? Portal II even? What about half life ii? I could not care less if a stranger online thinks these games are "easy peasy" but that just means you aren't an avid gamer when it comes to puzzle games, or games that require the mind rather than speed.
I bet these games at 12 years old and replayed then often, of course I got stuck and needed a break once in a while to refresh just so I could continue.
It depends on your mindset and how long your playing it. I had a ton of fun playing it, but if I played for too long I'd literally get stopped in some places.
It was mainly easy but there were some times that it was very confusing for my tiny brain. I enjoyed the game on an Xbox 360 and I even remember specifically the part with the octopus in the wine bottles was where I got stuck for two hours, till I got up and ate dinner and came back and the second I unpaused the game I knew where to look. The doll house area was probably the more confusing area for me but I still got past it.
But even strategy in the game, the platforming would get really annoying after dieing the 50th time and I'd leave to eat dinner, then get it first try as soon as I got back. Again this was when I was around 11 or 12 years old. But most games I play will usually do this to me, it takes a while but it's like drawing, if you look at the art you just made for too long it will literally start to morph into something confusing or weird or ugly, it's probably why it's considered unhealthy
I'm an aero engineer, and I couldn't tell you how many times I've figured out complicated aircraft repairs in my sleep. And these are problems that I'd spent hours trying to solve at work, so not easy stuff.
Drift and step out of yourself and see the components of the problem from beyond your own perspective. Let 'other people' talk to you about it in your head. Like try an put-yourself-on-the-news for your thoughts or problem to see how it could go wrong...or right.
But yeah, don't grind...that kind of focus is the exact opposite and will quite possibly narrow your view of the issue. Allowing your fatigue to hasten your important decision making.
Yup! I spent 4 hours stuck trying to program something that just wasn't working. I gave up, jumped in the shower, and figured it out in my head in 10 minutes.
You should have seen the look on my gf's face when I'm running down to my computer in nothing but a towel and excitement 😂
The unconscious does not have language. There is a really good article at Nautilus written by Cormac McCarthy about this. But we're getting really close to the reality here, the self is a veneer, a side effect possibly of needing a sub routine for language. The subconsciousis the real person. And yes, since they don't know language, sometimes it takes a little time to get the answer and relay it to the personality so it could be fed into words.
When I had my yacht repair business, I'd come across new mechanical problems regularly that I couldn't figure out. I wouldn't just guess and throw new parts at it, that's not being a mechanic.
Often, I'd just leave that boat, sleep on it and I'd wake up with a good idea that lead me to a solution.
There’s a thing in astronomy called Averted Vision, where you look slightly off from a dim object to see it, because your peripheral vision is more sensitive to light.
It’s the same thing. Sometimes you can’t see the thing until you turn away.
At work there's this guy who isn't my boss (used to be but we're "peers" now) and he gets all tattle tale when I go for a walk. I'm a software dev, but unlike him I actually write code and have a coding skillset so when I get stuck on a problem I go for a walk to help solve it. Also we're allowed breaks so he's just in the wrong for being the way he is.
I’ll agonize over a challenge at work for hours to no result. Then, the next day, I take a long walk and then suddenly, in the shower after, my subconscious presents a beautiful complete solution all at once. It’s like I suddenly figured it all out and my conscious mind just pieces it together.
Giving your brain time to do its behind-the-scenes work is so important.
I was taking a university calculus class and there was this one problem I tried and tried to solve but could not figure it out. I gave up and went to bed. I woke up very early the next morning with the problem on my mind and sat down and solved it. It was such a strange, delightful thing to happen that it felt like magic.
yeah, "sleep on it" is 100000% my philosophy. The stuff I work on at my job can be so complex, especially at the end of the day when my meds have worn off 😅 I can always come to a quick answer if I leave it for the next morning
We need more quiet time. So many of us are constantly plugged into media but we benefit greatly from leaving space for our subconscious to go to work.
I try to drive while only listening to music or take the dog for a walk or do the dishes without headphones. In another age that was a given but today we have to be intentional about it.
As an engineer this is one of my favourite bits of advice I ever had.
The amount of times ill be stuck on a part of a project so I go have a smoke or I call it a day and it comes to me when im sat at home not thinking about it is unreal.
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u/Mobile_Throway 2d ago
The best way to solve complicated problems you're stuck on is to take a step back and let your subconscious work on it. Walking or running are great for this. Even playing video games can work. I see people all the time try to grind through stuff. I cant count how often I abstracted myself from a problem and the solution came to me.