Не могу перевести hit a mind-block

Контекст:

Whenever I hit a mind-block, and it seems that perhaps I should consider a career in lawn maintenance, I try to find out what brought the technology to its current state. In other words, if I can understand the series of technologies that resulted in this new product, I can cut through the marketing propaganda and find the core value. That core value (what I call the “critical features list”) often gives me an understanding of what the technology is supposed to do. Once I know what it’s supposed to do, I can usually figure out how to make it work.
That’s what this chapter is all about—taking a look at the technologies that preceded and helped form the features list of Active Directory. We’ll start simple—looking at paper-based directories to get a feel for what a directory is. We’ll then discuss a few of the limited directories that have been in use for quite some time in our industry. Last, we’ll look at a competing network directory—both as an example of what a network directory can do and as a
yardstick for comparison with Active Directory.

Всё отстальное понятно.

Спасибо.