@hansw@mastodon.social I usually have a mental cue of things i want to try when solving a problem. So when i hit a failure i already have the next thing in the queue lined up to try without needing to sit back and reflect, I pretty much plan for and expect failure.
With that said if i start to get to the end of my list of ideas and my attempts get to the bottom of the barrel of things that I think stand a chance of being viable solutions there comes a point where, like you, I will put it down and come back to it later so i might be able to think of a better line of thinking.
But by the time I get to the point of "giving it a break"I have probably already failed 20+ times trying different angles.