I like to think of this as conscious thinking, and subconscious thinking. By focusing your mind on a topic for a while and leaving it there to germinate ("slee

I like to think of this as conscious thinking, and subconscious thinking. By focusing your mind on a topic for a while and leaving it there to germinate ("sleep on it") for a while, you often come back to it with a clearer focus. If your subsconscious didn't anchor on it, it's probably not worth pursuing (e.g. you don't care). This is why I'm still on slack and HN... I need that step away from focussed thinking (let's pretend).