Why Don't You Sleep On It?
thefirelane wrote to mention a New Scientist study that indicates your subconscious mind is a better decision maker than you are. From the article: "The research suggests the conscious mind should be trusted only with simple decisions, such as selecting a brand of oven glove. Sleeping on a big decision, such as buying a car or house, is more likely to produce a result people remain happy with than consciously weighing up the pros and cons of the problem, the researchers say. Thinking hard about a complex decision that rests on multiple factors appears to bamboozle the conscious mind so that people only consider a subset of information, which they weight inappropriately, resulting in an unsatisfactory choice. In contrast, the unconscious mind appears able to ponder over all the information and produce a decision that most people remain satisfied with."
Should I post or not? Better sleep on it.
I too, have experienced this. A video game level I've tried 5 times or maybe even a bit of code or technology problem I'm having seems extraordinarily complex or hard to achieve. I'll sleep on it and and seems the next day I can reliably pass the level every time (like the last level of Battlefield 2), or I come up with a better solution for the code, or a nice solutions for a technological problem - something that baffled me the day before. I unofficially exploit this all of the time now - buying a car, fixing that problem at work, solving the latest problem with the ex-wife, etc.
Then it should be:
2. Zzz