Focused solely on one bug - probably about 1 week - which was finding a bug inside Apache Thrifts RPC protocol. But I find you rarely spend time focused on one

Focused solely on one bug - probably about 1 week - which was finding a bug inside Apache Thrifts RPC protocol. But I find you rarely spend time focused on one bug - not just for practical reasons, but this is usually not the best way to fix difficult bugs. If you focus directly on it you're in "alert problem solving mode" rather than "quiet reflective mode" and insight and creativity only come in quiet reflective mode. I've solved so many bugs while playing minecraft, or standing in the shower, or walking to the train. If only I could convince my boss that when I'm playing minecraft - I'm only distracting my immediate consciousness (is there a word for this) while my mind is actually reasoning about the bug / rubber ducking