This rings close to home for me, I'm a firm subscriber of the mantra that laziness a good quality for a software engineer to have. It has saved me many times already working on difficult/never-seen-before problems, and (conversely) not adhering to it has bitten me multiple times.
Often it simply takes some time for solutions to new problems to percolate, and you need to take a step back regularly during the process. Forget about the problem completely and do something completely different, interspersed with short bursts of research and reading on related topics. Sooner or later the contours of a solution will start to form and you will (hopefully) be able to realize it much quicker and at higher quality compared to 'working hard' by pounding yourself and trying to force things.
I cannot count the number of times I almost gave up on a problem after working myself into multiple dead-ends, and almost instantly seeing a path forward after taking a few steps back and allowing my brain to work itself out of these dead-ends.
Not spending 1 week of 'hard work' on a bad solution can save you months of work in the future.
Often it simply takes some time for solutions to new problems to percolate, and you need to take a step back regularly during the process. Forget about the problem completely and do something completely different, interspersed with short bursts of research and reading on related topics. Sooner or later the contours of a solution will start to form and you will (hopefully) be able to realize it much quicker and at higher quality compared to 'working hard' by pounding yourself and trying to force things.
I cannot count the number of times I almost gave up on a problem after working myself into multiple dead-ends, and almost instantly seeing a path forward after taking a few steps back and allowing my brain to work itself out of these dead-ends.
Not spending 1 week of 'hard work' on a bad solution can save you months of work in the future.