[jnevill]

Has that never happened to you? You are stuck on a problem for what feels like forever. It's complex and difficult to keep completely in your mind at once. You've hit it from every facet that you can think off. Then you explain it to someone that knows very little of the problem and they throw out a little perspective, maybe preceded with a "Can you just..." and it may not be the solution, but your mind sort of jump starts down a different path than it had before.

I see this "Can you just..." business similar to the advice that you just stop working on the problem that you can't solve and think about something else for a while. Take a nap, go for a walk, have a drink. Wait until tomorrow. Often times the problem isn't that the problem is difficult to solve or that it's complex (it is), but rather that you are too mired in it to come up with the solution. "Can you just... " suggestions often pull me out of the trees so I can see the forest.