From: not@telling.you.invalid
Marc Haber wrote:
> John Ames wrote:
>>On Sun, 25 Jan 2026 21:52:08 -0500
>>c186282 wrote:
>>> I suspect that stuff like programs may leave waking consciousness,
>>> but somewhere deep down keep some little processes running. Then,
>>> when you go back to it after awhile, new and better approaches and
>>> tweaks seem to come easily.
>>
>>Absolutely. Our lead developer at $EMPLOYER has often related stories
>>of working on a problem for hours or days, leaving off and going to
>>bed, and waking up the next morning with the answer waiting for him.
>
> That often happens, yes. But I also have the situation when I go to
> bed with an open issue that it takes me too long to get to sleep
> because I keep pondering about the issue.
I usually find the obvious answer while lying in bed, and go to
sleep entirely satisfied. Then after working on it the next day I
discover that in my tiredness I'd just forgotten most of the
constraints that made the problem difficult in the first place.
Good for sleep, bad for problem solving (especially if I don't
remember in the morning either and start extensively redesigning
things).
> It also helps to explain the problem so someone. MIT used to have a
> teddy bear in next to the door to the user helldesk, people had to
> explain their problem to the bear before being allowed in. People tell
> that many people stopped right in their explanation and went back to
> their console.
Most times I go to start a technical topic on Usenet I realise the
answer by the time I've got to the end of writing it and just keep
it as a private note.
> In the last months I made the experience that is also helps to explain
> the issue to an LLM.
Well I guess that's the modern version of what I do.
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