Hmm... I'm probably being thick, but it sounds like gears-based reasoning is just commitment to a detailed model. That wouldn't help you design the model, among other things.

I may need to investigate this on my own; I don't want to tangle you in a comment thread explaining something over and over again.

Thanks for the quick reply! I'll check those posts out.

From what I've seen (which, again, isn't much), gears-level reasoning just involves comprehensively investigating a model. I'm sure I'm misunderstanding it, especially if it's now the basis for most of the posts around here. Could you enlighten me?