The “aha” moment gets the credit, but it’s built on a hundred “huh?” moments nobody saw.

Insight gets remembered as a single event because it is the only part with a clear edge. What produced it was a long series of half-understandings, wrong turns and long stretches that refused to resolve, none of which felt like progress at the time. The breakthrough is the last piece of a process, not a substitute for one.

Count the confused hours as the work, not the obstacle to it. Keep going on days when nothing resolves, since those are the days that make the resolution possible. The moment it clicks will feel sudden and will not have been.