I love that approach myself; methodically learning the building blocks is the only way to get solid understanding.
However, that's very hard to do if your time is limited and you need to add a feature to an existing app or get something working ASAP. Stumbling through the API is the norm if you're doing something fast.
It reminds me of when I was trying to get Photoshop to do something before really sitting down and learning the principles. So much wasted time.
In the end, it's always worth it to learn the basics first, but your team will not always agree.
However, that's very hard to do if your time is limited and you need to add a feature to an existing app or get something working ASAP. Stumbling through the API is the norm if you're doing something fast.
It reminds me of when I was trying to get Photoshop to do something before really sitting down and learning the principles. So much wasted time.
In the end, it's always worth it to learn the basics first, but your team will not always agree.