One of my bosses/clients was struck by my being neither a bottom-up nor a top-down person, but more of a come at it sideways type. How broadly and deeply I go

One of my bosses/clients was struck by my being neither a bottom-up nor a top-down person, but more of a come at it sideways type. How broadly and deeply I go depends on how well I know a topic already. The less I know, the broader and deeper I go, in a not-particularly-predictable way, until I feel like I just went past the point where I could have taken action. At that point, I have a glom of unconnected data and factoids. Then I do something (code, cut, brew, cook, wheel, weld, bend, hammer, whatever), with every expectation of failure and every hope for at least a step forward. Then something doesn’t pan out and the failure crystallizes knowledge. Until going hands on, I had no context to appreciate what part of breadth or depth was practical, what was theoretical, and/or what was background/historical. Suddenly confronted by practical problems, I backtrack up and in, sort of, to find paths that I can evaluate as to utility, whether to the immediate task or to a firm theoretical foundation. Lather, rinse, repeat, until things start to take shape and I start to understand the subject.