While solving problems on your own is a great way to learn things, another solution to this is to just talk to someone. They don't have to be an expert in the field, they just need to be there for you to confirm your base assumptions are sound. In fact, often the act of explaining the problem to them will force you to think through your problem differently, leading to the solution. Like Kent Beck said, "Once a problem is described in sufficient detail, its solution is obvious."
Someone suggested the same thing over on my blog - it definitely makes sense, I just didn't think to apply it to programming. When I proofread papers it always helps to have someone around to read outloud to - things that seemed great in my head end up sounding completely different. I can see this applying to code as well.
