It is not always by plugging away at a difficulty and sticking to it that one overcomes it; often it is by working on the one next to it. Some things and some people have to be approached obliquely, at an angle.
“Who would not rather have the fame of Archimedes than that of his conqueror Marcellus?”
“Some guy refuses to fight and we call that the sin, but he's standing up for what he believes in and that seems pretty damned American to me.”