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Psychology & Neuroscience

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    $\begingroup$ I'd like to share an old take on this. The 19th century mathematician Henri Poincaré has described something very similar in his essay Mathematical Creation. So maybe that is just how people think. (I have this story and the quiotation from the book Letters to a young mathematician (link points to the right page in a preview on Google Books) by Ian Steward) $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 3, 2012 at 9:02
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    $\begingroup$ I quite often find myself stuck on problems when doing programming. I really try to concentrate, tries to visualize the problem, writes code, etc. to find a solution to the problem. After a while I'm so frustrated not finding a solution that I'll start working with another part of the software. When doing this context switch I very often come up with solutions to the original problem which makes me directly jump back and write code for that (which makes me forget about the part I was currently working on...) I still haven't found a good method to manage lots of these context switches though... $\endgroup$ Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 13:51
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    $\begingroup$ I know a similar phenomenon - that you remember unsolved problems or uncompleted tasks better than solved resp. completed ones - as the Zeigarnik effect. But "there is controversy regarding the reliability of the Zeigarnik effect". $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 21:10
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    $\begingroup$ In lucid dream induction there's a technique called "non-induction", where after a few intense days of affirmations and other training, the person completely lets go and does not even allow the topic of induction to enter one's mind. It is remarkably effective at inducing lucid dreams when properly executed. I've compared this phenomenon to a coiled spring - a spring will not expand as long as you keep compressing it. In case of induction, learning, focus and intention is the equivalent of compression $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 25, 2014 at 16:01
  • $\begingroup$ Let me share this, as you asked, At my work place when I am stuck in some issue in code or any other technical aspect, most of the solutions I end up finding in the restroom, while relaxing, its like all the probabilities and possibilities shows up and the issues are narrowed down to a single point. And in a while ,I know that where the problem is, and what will be the solution. Cheers that you asked. So me. :P $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 15, 2017 at 8:24