As opposed to coming up with powerful and predictive concepts, and refining them over time. Of course argument and counterargument are crucial to that, so there’s no sharp line between this and “patching”, but for me the difference is: are you starting with the assumption that the idea is fundamentally sound, and you just need to fix it up a bit to address objections? If you are in that position despite not having fleshed out the idea very much, that’s what I’d characterise as “patching your way to good arguments”.
As opposed to coming up with powerful and predictive concepts, and refining them over time. Of course argument and counterargument are crucial to that, so there’s no sharp line between this and “patching”, but for me the difference is: are you starting with the assumption that the idea is fundamentally sound, and you just need to fix it up a bit to address objections? If you are in that position despite not having fleshed out the idea very much, that’s what I’d characterise as “patching your way to good arguments”.