On the Character of Lower- and Higher-rung Skill-Sets

Some more details concerning laddered skills.

What would we expect to see in lower-rung skill sets? We might expect to find an incomplete set of capabilities, some of which are simply ineffective.

What about higher-rung skill sets? We might expect that they replace ineffective lower-rung skills and fill in the gaps.

But I think this is wrong. Lower-rung skills tend to provide a more complete set of capabilities than we would expect. But what is 'lower' about them is that they provide a simplified set of capabilities, painted in broader-brushstrokes.

And what higher-rung skills tend to do is not simply add or replace, but refine aspects of those broad-brushstrokes.

It's also worth noting that even if a particular rung provides some less refined capability, this may be beneficial in some circumstances for pragmatic reasons. So 'higher-rung' does not simply mean better.

Still to come, some of the reasons I'm talking about laddered skills...