peck away at the edges?

[Eway]

"this is a very hard problem, and I don't think I can do more than just peck away at the edges of the problem."

"the call pecking away at the edges of my already frayed psyche."

I don't understand what "peck away at the edges" means in these two sentences...

[Tdol]

Deal with little bits and pieces of it to reduce it, rather than get to grips with everything at once.

[nyggus]

Deal with little bits and pieces of it to reduce it, rather than get to grips with everything at once.

Does "get to grips with" mean the same as "come to grips with"?

[Tdol]

Yes.