Stepping away from a problem -- not!
I was banging my head against the wall trying to resolve this incident yesterday but had to step away from it only because my little girl's pre-ballet class had a recital. (Other than my video camera battery dying halfway through the dancing it was great.)
I hated to leave my problem though. Oh, I knew it would be waiting for me to fix later, which I did around 11:30 last night, but I thought at the time how I so much thrive on working through a problem until its resolved. I find no advantage in “stepping away from a problem” to see it in a different light or anything. Then I saw this excellent (and funny!) post from Julie Lerman this morning, where even bathroom breaks are avoided.
I have for a long time believed that a characteristic of a good developer was their drive and obsession with completing a task or fixing a problem. Just doin' it until its done. No excuses, no distractions, head down, think it through, fix the damned thing, figure it out. Anyway....