> The problem is that research work generally takes the following form:

> * Come up with 5 possible approaches (2 days)

Even that gives you something to talk about, that looks "solution-oriented" in the way managers like; in deep work the first steps can actually be:

* Break down the existing approach into its fundamental assumptions and components (3 days)

* Try to build a few approaches challenging some assumptions in a useful way, and fail (2 days)

* Get a clearer picture of the cloud of possibilities that are more likely to work, and start assembling the pieces from that cloud (3 days)

and so on. This is the kind of stuff that's really hard to communicate, and often sounds like you're doing nothing at all in the initial stages, even though that time pays for itself many times more once(/if) you get to take it to completion instead of doing patchwork upon patchwork on a design based on outdated assumptions.