{"id":3939,"date":"2023-08-07T01:04:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T06:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/?p=3939"},"modified":"2023-07-15T07:20:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-15T12:20:15","slug":"flexibility-and-a-foundation-of-fundamentals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/2023\/08\/flexibility-and-a-foundation-of-fundamentals\/","title":{"rendered":"Flexibility and a Foundation of Fundamentals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">by Dwayne Phillips<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>To be flexible enough to do new things, I often need a foundation of fundamentals in place first.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If I am standing on shifting sand, I have to be flexible to adjust my stance and upper body so I don&#8217;t fall. Flexibility is required just to stay in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If I am standing on a foundation of fundamentals, flexibility allows be to do new things. I can bend, twist, stretch, reach, etc. without falling flat on my face. The foundation of fundamentals is in place first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But how long do I have to work on building this foundation of fundamentals before I use flexibility to reach out to new things?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The answer is almost always, &#8220;Longer than I want.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Okay, that aside, the answer is, &#8220;That depends on what new things I want to attempt.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A bigger leap requires a firmer foundation of fundamentals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If I want to write one paragraph of fiction, I need to know something about grammar, punctuation, and such fundamentals. If I want to write a ten-page short story, I need more fundamentals. If I want to write a 500-page novel, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If I want to change the world with a new type of software, I need a pretty big foundation of fundamentals. The same is needed if I want to build a bridge across the English Channel or a space elevator that lifts me to the moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fundamentals can be boring. Acquiring fundamentals can be boring. If I want to be flexible and try untried things, I need some foundation of fundamentals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Dwayne Phillips To be flexible enough to do new things, I often need a foundation of fundamentals in place first. If I am standing on shifting sand, I have to be flexible to adjust my stance and upper body so I don&#8217;t fall. Flexibility is required just to stay in place. If I am [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,389,48,106,235],"tags":[214,444,170,220,236],"class_list":["post-3939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agility","category-experiment","category-general-systems-thinking","category-knowledge","category-testing","tag-agility","tag-experiment","tag-general-systems-thinking","tag-knowledge","tag-testing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3940,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3939\/revisions\/3940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}