1. Brains are similar. How similar? We don't know until we tell someone else about what our own brain is doing, and find out that their brain works the same way. Some things might only work for one person. Some might work for 20% of people. Some might work for 99% of people. Nothing works for everyone, of course. Are you imagining that, instead of articles like this, we only see articles about things that work for everyone? That would be an empty set.
2. Anecdotes are meant to be used as grist for Bayesian updating. What I personally gleaned from this article was a slightly heightened confidence that your brain works at a certain speed whether you are pushing it to work or not, or worrying over its success or not, or whatever else--so it's better to just allow your brain to work, than put yourself in emotional turmoil over its need to find the solution. The technique itself (though see #1) isn't the important part of the article; rather, it's the knowledge found through the use of the technique--even though it was only implicitly stated!--that made the article valuable. The technique was only relevant in the way that a description of the experimental process and apparatus is relevant to a scientific paper: for rigor and replication of the original discovery.
2. Anecdotes are meant to be used as grist for Bayesian updating. What I personally gleaned from this article was a slightly heightened confidence that your brain works at a certain speed whether you are pushing it to work or not, or worrying over its success or not, or whatever else--so it's better to just allow your brain to work, than put yourself in emotional turmoil over its need to find the solution. The technique itself (though see #1) isn't the important part of the article; rather, it's the knowledge found through the use of the technique--even though it was only implicitly stated!--that made the article valuable. The technique was only relevant in the way that a description of the experimental process and apparatus is relevant to a scientific paper: for rigor and replication of the original discovery.