Fix the Engine Before You Wax the Hood

The Paul Truesdell Podcast · Jul 18, 2026 · 1m

Fix the Engine Before You Wax the Hood

A bite-size think about it bite.

When my father worked on the family car, he never waxed the hood while the engine was still knocking. He fixed the big thing first, then worried about the shine. In Ukraine, they made a smart choice about order. Most of the supplies moving into Crimea came over land. Only a small slice, something like four or five percent, came by sea. So they went after the land routes first, the ones carrying the heavy load. Only after those were degraded did they turn to the ships. Had they hit the ships first, it would have been a…