I think it's very easy to make folksy intuitive sounding rules from almost any angle here, and none of them are really definitive because the world is infinitely complex. Move fast, but not too fast. Think, but not for too long. Do, but not too early or too late. I don't think there is a one size fits all answer for any person or organisation.
I think the correct fundamental framework, which is compatible with all sides of the argument, is that you must be mindful of your learning rate. Some approaches are depth first - perhaps that depth is satisfactory to learn what you need to solve real problems. But perhaps what you actually need is breadth. There is no way to say which is right - you literally have to just stress it out, it's not fun. Some problems only yield information when you have skin in the game - there's no way to reason out the right approach, you need to push at real boundaries and see what happens. Some of the boundaries, all of the boundaries, keep pushing, take a pause... again, you can't know for sure what's right. All you can do is constantly ask yourself - am I learning? Am I generating hypotheses, testing them, proving at least some? The framework is different for everyone, and it's _work_.
I think the correct fundamental framework, which is compatible with all sides of the argument, is that you must be mindful of your learning rate. Some approaches are depth first - perhaps that depth is satisfactory to learn what you need to solve real problems. But perhaps what you actually need is breadth. There is no way to say which is right - you literally have to just stress it out, it's not fun. Some problems only yield information when you have skin in the game - there's no way to reason out the right approach, you need to push at real boundaries and see what happens. Some of the boundaries, all of the boundaries, keep pushing, take a pause... again, you can't know for sure what's right. All you can do is constantly ask yourself - am I learning? Am I generating hypotheses, testing them, proving at least some? The framework is different for everyone, and it's _work_.