All this happened, more or less.

The only sensible approach, they [Crick and Koch, 1992] said, was "to press the experimental attack until we are confronted with dilemmas that call for new ways of thinking". Francis Crick, Discoverer of Genetic Code, by Matt Ridley, p.192

in general, forcing one's mind into dilemmas rather than tradeoffs is the best way to a creative solution.

problem situation -> elements and interactions -> problem -> dilemma -> solution -> transformation -> innovation