[kyuudou]

My theory is I offload computation to a larger compute node, e.g. subconscious.

Something I picked up from my 7th grade english teacher, once feeling blocked or otherwise done all you can, go do other stuff and let the subconscious work on it. He meant it in context with creative writing but I think it applies for any other profession that requires problem solving.

Sleep, particularly - I often wake up the next day after struggling with a problem with the obvious solution gleaming in my mind's eye.

[egypturnash]

Pretty sure this applies to anything, I sure did find myself thinking about how to animate scenes when I was trying to go to bed after a long day in the cartoon mines.

I don't get it much in my current art practice, I dunno if it's because I've been doing this professionally for a couple decades, or if I've structured my work to not need too much of this kind of thinking. So my mind wanders to other stuff in my life instead.

[refactor_master]

I’m still not sure. Was I unable to solve the task because I was on hour 10 that day, and I could easily have solved it had I done it in the morning, or did my subconsciousness really tackle the rest of the problem overnight for me?

[saluki]

I definitely come up with solutions to hard problems while spacing out in the shower and while sleeping, I've even woke up from a dream about a solution to a problem I was working on during the day and have dreamed new features and business idea. So I definitely think your brain is working out problems coming up with ideas even when you're not conscious of it.