Code Blindness

In chess, there is a phenomenon one grandmaster waggishly dubbed amaurosis scacchistica: "chess blindness." It is a player's unaccountable inability to see the obvious, such as a rook bearing down on one's queen.
This week I witnessed an example of what you might call "code blindness" in the form of approximately this exchange about the Internal Revenue Code:

professor: "When does section 307 of the code apply?"
student: "When a transaction is governed by section 305(a)."
professor: "Does section 305(a) govern the transaction on the board?"
student: "No."
professor: "Does section 307 apply to the transaction on the board?"
student: (long pause) "Yes."

This colloquy was repeated a couple of times, with lengthy explanations in between, before the professor got the answer he was looking for. It may have been the most awkward moment I have experienced in law school since my first semester.