/me nods...

The crux of my suggestion, is, indeed, that one needs to explore the problem and then to pick a couple of them to carry forward.   It is easy, very easy, to walk (too...) confidently in a particular direction without really considering where you are going and ... suddenly you are having “a Wile E. Coyote moment.”   (You’re standing in mid-air, holding some very-heavy something made ... of course ... by Acme, and you are definitely not the Roadrunner!)   “Look before you leap” is sometimes easier said than done.