Asking the right person saves effort that pride would waste.

A great deal of effort gets spent on problems that one well-chosen conversation would have dissolved. Pride keeps you from having it, so you spend a week on something a knowledgeable person could have redirected in ten minutes. The effort feels virtuous while it happens and produces nothing you would not have got faster.

Before your next long solo push, spend five minutes identifying who already knows this. Then ask them a specific question rather than a general one. Most people are glad to answer something precise, and the request costs them far less than you imagine.