They are a reflection of their owners. You can look at someone's problem and immediately understand how much energy is being expended in holding onto it, keeping that balance of oppositions just right. The lovely miracle that happens though, is when one is willing to examine other unusual plans of action or directions to take, the problem starts to wobble. The balance of forces is not nearly so opposed and if allowed to unbalance entirely, may initiate a solution which will transcend either of the previously stagnant options. Solutions such as getting a job at Disneyworld or attending co-ed Shy People Anonymous meetings.
Problems are two dimensional.
This is why we can observe another person's problems from a different perspective and often see an immediate solution. When it is our own problem, we've gotten stuck in looking at it from only one direction. When that additional dimension is thrown in, the perfect balance of opposing forces loses its credibility. We can see that they are not perfectly opposing, that there are other factors which can counter-balance one side or the other. It works often enough due to an instinctual mode of being that we may employ however.