Fair enough, that's a reasonable position. My opinion, for what it's worth, is that every step is a hard step, because it's not just a matter of time elapsed to

Fair enough, that's a reasonable position. My opinion, for what it's worth, is that every step is a hard step, because it's not just a matter of time elapsed to the next one, but of each step having to be taken in just such a way as to set the right preconditions for all the subsequent ones.