The Unsolvable

   I was reflecting today on the notion of how much I value 'figuring something out', and the feeling that comes from that ability to do so. When I was studying in formal school and learning how to solve math problems and computer programs, I always felt a discomfort when I failed to figure out how to solve the problem. It's a very palpable feeling that if I don't know how to figure out a problem, I must somehow go into emergency mode. I wonder how many have felt that sense of everything around them literally turning the color grey, because they were stuck trying to solve the unsolvable, or barely solvable. I have often felt this way whenever I am trying to generate a new idea or at least something tangible among a lot of intangible theories or ideas.
   It's equally difficult to know when one should stop and take a break from trying to solve a problem or come up with a viable idea for a project or a proposal. I remember reading something in one of physicist David Bohm's books, where he talked about scientists who are struggling on the cusp of a solution, only to find themselves solving the problem either through a dream or something as mundane as stepping on a bus. These examples either prove that the mind operates best when it is not clouded by thinking, or that the mind is always trying to solve a problem, even when not conscious of it. It could be a combination of both. But I wonder what happens, exactly, when the mind simply exhausts all possible solutions to a problem. Does mind continue to generate faith that the problem can be solved at some other time, or does it conclude that there is just not enough information to go by?
    I think that rather than pushing aside the feeling of not being able to solve a problem, that experience probably needs to be studied in more detail. I don't even think there is a particular name for it, to tell you the truth. The closest expression I can think of to the sensation of 'not being able to solve the problem' might be frustration. However, the latter has often been used in psychoanalytic terms to refer to specific drives that are engrained in human beings. Is there a similar 'drive' we can speak of to solve a problem, a kind of 'intellectual drive'? Maybe and maybe not. But the experience needs to be known in order to prevent people from being overwhelmed by it.
   People are always, it seems, either in the process of completing something or moving to something else, or both. When a particular problem has yet to be solved, can anyone just be in that null space, or do they need to keep going internally until the problem is solved? I think it takes a bit of shaking up to realize that the solution does not lie in me at all. It could simply be that the thought is conditioned in a certain way that there is no other thought available to seem to complete it. In those cases, the only answer available is to wait. But another way is to realize that none of our thoughts complete each other. If a thought remains without a solution, that thought is already complete; it doesn't need the completion of a solution. While that may not satisfy people looking for answers, it creates a space to allow thoughts to be complete in themselves, with no need for connection to a new thought.