I noticed today that truly learning a strategy rarely begins at the keyboard. It begins by asking simple, sometimes boring questions: what assumptions am I making? what failure modes exist?

This looks like moving slowly, but it’s the phase where depth is purchased. In trading, for example, you can code an idea that looks good on one chart and still be carrying a dozen hidden assumptions.

So I try a small exercise now: state the mechanism in words, identify the edge cases, and paper-test the weakest assumptions. That short circuit—failing cheap—saves weeks later.

The point isn’t to be cautious for its own sake. It’s to build something that keeps working when conditions change.