Saw the new movie Captain America a couple of days ago. There is a scene during his time in Army boot camp where the recruits are offered a chance to solve a problem to get a break. Solve the problem at the midpoint of a long run and you get to ride in a Jeep the rest of the distance. The challenge is to retrieve a flag from the top of a very slick flagpole. The other recruits fight each other as they struggle to jump on the pole and climb it, only to fail repeatedly. The drill instructor tells them no one has got the flag in the 17 years he has been there. The future Captain America walks over to the pole, removes the pin at the bottom, pushes the pole to the ground, walks over and removes the flag. He then jumps into the Jeep as everyone else gawks in astonishment.
The thread below on how to measure the diameter of a manhole reminded me of this. Surveyors tackle similar problems all the time. You just can't think like normal people.