omitting one of "the more"s in "the more... the more..." structure

I'd like to know if a sentence like this is grammatically correct:

The problem puzzled me the more I thought about it.

According to this answer The more...the more structure with normal clause?, there is an implied "the more":

The more I thought about it, [the more] the problem puzzled me.

But is the original sentence acceptable and grammatically correct? Thank you very much.

Solution 1:

Yes, a sentence like

The problem puzzled me the more I thought about it.

is acceptable and grammatically correct as presented. It would be grammatically correct, but less typical, to separate the clauses with a comma:

The problem puzzled me, the more I thought about it.

You'd usually do this if one of the clauses grows complex enough to be a complete sentence on its own.