I have been doing some reading on this very topic... from a neurodevelopmental perspective... small children vs. adults specifically.
Analogy: Small children have a "lantern" type of intelligence and adults have a "spotlight" intelligence. As small children, when their physical world is new to them, they are playfully experimenting, exploring, willing to accept ALL possible ways of approaching a problem and learning. Adults, having gone through that process, will have narrowed down their problem solving to the most obvious, simple, approach. On one hand, adults become very efficient at solving simple problems... and it works most of the time... it's efficient. On the other hand, children are often better at solving complex problems than adults because their intelligence is far more open to playfully experimenting and exploring ALL possibilities.
Analogy: AI... machine learning is much like this, as well. The reason for all of these mega-sized data centers is that, right now, AI is still a "child". It is playfully experimenting, exploring, and will accept ALL possible ways of problem solving. It takes a lot of energy for all that compute. As it matures, it becomes more efficient, narrows down to the most likely solution rather quickly... less energy.
So... a couple of thoughts regarding this. (1) IF you are neurodivergent enough, creative enough, willing to take deep dives into topics... like a child learns... you are more likely to be a good problem solver... especially complex, less obvious ones. (2) I also have learned that when we are in a mental state where we are highly focused upon ourselves, depressed, ruminating, sad, anxious... that area of the brain shuts down our creative side of our brain. Conversely, when we are in a creative, playful, exploring state of mind... that area of the brain shuts down "the self". It may be an underlying self-regulatory mechanism of why many of us have strong special interests... when we are participating in those activities, it shuts down "the self"... and inhibits depression and rumination, etc.
The life-hack, if you will, would be to find some balance in one's life where we make time for playful exploration of our world... learning by doing and experiencing. This will keep that creative, childlike, "lantern" intelligence and problem solving part of our brains active.
