Also, there’s this phenomenon (that I’ve never tried to articulate before) where when I first glimpse a surprising / difficult concept that looks like it’s going to take some time to untangle / conflict with my existing model, I sort of… eject. Ideally, I then stare off into space / scribble on my whiteboard / meditate, as necessary. Realistically, I often end up reading fiction / dealing with email for a time before I can convince myself to attack the issue head-on.
I tend to interpret this as my subconscious needing time to process it, and I can occupy my conscious mind lots of ways without issue. I don’t have a good way to test what the boundary between things that don’t cause trouble to the processing and things that do, though. (I’m pretty sure emails are about as good as meditation, don’t know if scribbling is helpful, but strongly suspect that video games are unhelpful.)
I tend to interpret this as my subconscious needing time to process it, and I can occupy my conscious mind lots of ways without issue. I don’t have a good way to test what the boundary between things that don’t cause trouble to the processing and things that do, though. (I’m pretty sure emails are about as good as meditation, don’t know if scribbling is helpful, but strongly suspect that video games are unhelpful.)