I’ve been wondering lately how much of this is being good at troubleshooting, and how much of it is being good at picking up a problem someone else gave you, poking at it, and then putting it down again.

Not everyone is cut out to do that. Asking them to look at a puzzle derails their entire day, almost every time instead of just when it’s hard. So even when it’s their puzzle they resist picking it up because it’s a guaranteed bad day.