I don't know: I think this tends to be a bit illusory. When it works you think "of course! This is great!"
But I've found as often the obvious brilliant solution while I'm away from the problem doesn't survive 5 minutes contact with all the constraints I forgot about while I was away from it.
Basically I think we count the hits, and discount the grind necessary to produce them.
Same here. If my subconscious could deal with it, it's probably not that big of an issue or wouldn't be on my plate.
Distance might help me see something I had missed, but that is an exceeding rarity. If getting away for a moment was magic we'd be in a nicer place. Everybody poops. Fewer put in effort.
I have the same issue with problems I solve in my sleep (or think that I’ve solved). I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and think “this is going to be soo good” and then the next day when I’m sitting in front of the keyboard I realise it was nonsense.
But I've found as often the obvious brilliant solution while I'm away from the problem doesn't survive 5 minutes contact with all the constraints I forgot about while I was away from it.
Basically I think we count the hits, and discount the grind necessary to produce them.