Why can you sit 2 hours trying to solve a programming/math problem, give up, go to bed & then when you wake up, solve the problem in 10 minutes?
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I take this answer from Barbara Oakley, in her book “A mind for numbers”.
Imagine the brain is like a pinball machine. When you start thinking about something, a ball is launched (representing your current thinking) and it bounces off of bumpers (different ideas). When you’re focusing, those bumpers are tightly packed together. So that ball is just bouncing around a tight little area of the brain. Well, what if the solution isn’t among the ideas in that tight space? You get frustrated and get nowhere.
So you go and relax, take a nap, have a walk, work out, whatever it takes to get your mind completely off the problem. Well guess what? That ball is still bouncing around, except now those bumpers are more spaced out. So that ball is going to bounce freely around your entire mind, and maybe it’ll find the bumper with the right idea. Now when you return to the problem, that idea is ready and waiting for you. Eureka!
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