I find many times when I'm having an especially hard time getting started, that, after I finally do get started, I can look back and realize that I didn't have a decent solution in mind and my subconscious was busy working on it. (Though, that isn't always the case.)

Sometimes I'll push myself to just "move" on the problem and I'll end up moving in the wrong direction and feeling like stopping the whole time. And then inspiration will finally hit and I start over and quickly produce a much better solution in less time than I spent fighting myself and producing parts of a bad solution.

But I still agree with the general point of the article. I need to keep "opening the editor" at regular intervals to make sure my subconscious gets enough information about the problem often enough in order to be making progress on the solution. I just don't feel too bad (any more) if I repeatedly can't get very far despite really putting some effort into. I've learned that there is usually a good reason for that, and (even if there isn't) pushing even harder won't do any good (for me).