Sometimes grit is just NOT the answer.
Despite experiencing the "shower solution" repeatedly over the years, I still cannot get myself to let go and take a step back until I'm literally too exhausted to continue.
When I'm thinking clearly, it's obvious the optimal answer is "take a break". But when I'm "in the stuck", taking a break seems like the worst possible answer. Every. Time.
It could be that one is stuck longer than necessary for uploading... or it could be that one is only able to let go when uploading is complete...
What evidence would show which it is?
If I had some signal that indicated "sufficient information uploaded, algorithm running" it'd be easy to stop. But the (obvious) problem is that signal is, usually, the discovery of the solution. Which happens well after all the being stuck.
There is something comforting about accepting that banging my head against a wall might just be a requirement of figuring the thing out, though.
So it's not a lesson I've learned, but I don't think it's a lesson I should learn either.
Same here. I’ve found myself going down rabbit holes so ridiculously orthogonal to the actual problem that I was embarrassed for myself.
Bret Victor links to this book called Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field, which talks a lot about this too - http://worrydream.com/refs/Hadamard%20-%20The%20psychology%2...
