Ask HN: How do you brainstorm with yourself?

[samuell]

I feel one of the biggest productivity blockers for me is getting stuck. This tends to happen even though I'm very conscious about taking small breaks and not pounding too long on a problem if I don't get forward.

What will happen is that I'll flick around unsure about what is the next step, and not realizing that I'm stuck. Many times I might also miss some obvious easy step I could take to get one step forward, just because I'm not yet aware that I'm stuck, and haven't been actively seeking a solution.

Thus, I was wondering, what are your best advice for:

1. Realize as soon as possible that you are stuck and need to stop to seek out another approach

2. Brainstorming with yourself - How do you get to think about those kind of obvious things that you might miss just because you are too buried in your current work?

[gregjor]

Take a shower. Take a nap. Brainstorming with yourself is called thinking. Maybe get someone else involved to bounce ideas around.

[samuell → gregjor]

I use to do these things.

I have found though that the success can be wildly different depending on how actively I try to lead my own thoughts in certain directions.

For example, I use to try to think through:

- Have I seen a similar problem in a different context

- What is the way to solve it in that different context

- Is there some simple step that can improve my knowledge of the area

- Are there some simple steps of preparations that I can take now, that will save me time once I have figured out a solution

Etc.

[gregjor → samuell]

How To Solve It by George Pólya has some good ideas for mathematical problem solving you can apply to all kinds of problems.

As you get more experience solving problems (or failing to solve them, then seeing how someone else succeeds) you have more examples to draw from.

I find that describing the problem (writing it down), then trying to break it up into simpler problems, helps me figure things out. When I get stuck I have friends I can talk to and maybe get some ideas from.

[samuell → gregjor]

Many thanks for the rec, will check it out for sure!