My wife has been teaching herself to program for the last year - one of her big challenges has been understanding when to hack on a problem until it's solved versus when to go looking for sharper tools.
She found this analogy quite helpful, and I hope others in the same boat will find it helpful as well.
Trees and forests may not be the right context. Weeds and the vegetable garden may be better. The third time out, a tool that removes weeds may look pretty good.
Hmm, that's probably also a good place to start an analogy about code maintenance. Weed by hand first, then weed using good tools, then automate your weeding if things get out of hand.