I have friend like that and he saved my ass many times. When I was stuck trying to find satisfying solution, he was almost always coming up on the spot with something simpler then I was striving for, but upon close inspection good enough. If I pointed significant problem in his solution he either came up with fix or abandoned his idea without regret.

I like to think that I design better apis and libraries than him because I concentrate much more on what I want to have and try to weed out any inconvenience, but when I can't get what I want then he comes up with the idea I actually can get and is good enough.