Why do we still have this problem?
As a problem solver, you have a limit - a threshold, a tolerance - for how many times you're willing to solve the same problem.
When you tire of solving it, you'll eliminate the cause, or automate the solution.
This is why when you see a problem that's new to you you're tempted to assume no one else has tried to solve it.
If it was a common problem then someone would surely have prevented it by now. Right?
If you assume, instead, that someone *has* solved this type of problem before, then you free yourself up to think right away about how to eliminate it.