Floundering is flopping around and making little progress. A Dutch word for getting mired and lost.
Foundering is what we call it when the ship goes down. It’s an ancient French word based on bottom.
Too often, in our desperate attempt to not founder, we flounder.
Better, I think, to go down with energy and direction than to simply meander. It turns out that calmly executing a plan makes it less likely you’ll sink.
https://seths.blog/2024/10/foundering-or-floundering/