I make a decent focaccia now, but a few years ago I was terrible. Actually, I was God-awful—couldn’t pay anyone to eat that mealy cardboard. The problem was I hadn’t figured out my “rhythm,” which is a thing you have to nail down in bread making. After a while I developed a feel for things: the plasticity of the dough after adequate kneading, the proper dimpling ratio, the balance of toppings that complemented the bread as a whole. I had unlocked the mystery focaccia techniques that worked for me! And until a month ago, I had felt the same way about my skincare too.