Why Iterate? - Gabe's Blog

Why is iteration important?

2025 February 12

After reading and listening to the Stratechery Bundle's analysis [1] of Open AI's newly launched Deep Research agent [2], I was motivated to write about the importance of iteration.

Firstly, Ben Thompson's analysis of Apple reminded me of the Steve Jobs quote, "If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time" quote [3], [4]. The quote resonates with me because it serves as a reminder on the importance of consistently working towards (i.e. iterating towards) delivering wonderful products and services that bring delight.

Secondly, I observed a pattern that icons of success across (a) different domains and (b) different times have emphasized the importance of iteration. Icons of success know "iteration" by many different names:

• Ask technology entrepreneur icon Mark Zuckerberg, and he'll say "iteration" [5]

• Ask basketball icon Lebron James, and he'll say "attention to detail" [6]

• Ask bodybuilding icon/entertainment icon/politician icon Arnold Schwarzenegger, and he'll say "reps, reps, reps" [7]

• Ask investor icon Charlie Munger , and he'll say "discipline" [8]

Thirdly, I believe that iteration is one form of expression for a person's agency and/or ambition. With the continuing developments in AI software (e.g. Open AI's Deep Research) and hardware (e.g. Unitree's robots), I also believe that iteration is becoming increasingly important. Now more than ever, people need to be doers/builders/makers/creators. As the many successful people have shown, wonderful products and services are built upon iteration.

So let's get iterating on our projects! [9]

Footnotes
1. Ben Thompson wrote Deep Research and Knowledge Value and this excerpt, "been reading Apple earnings reports for 12 years, or thinking and reading about technology for three decades" demonstrates the importance of iterations over time.
2. Open AI announced Deep Research on 2025 February 2.
3. Steve Jobs shared his quote in his book Make Something Wonderful.
4. At one point, I thought of Ben Thompson as "The Apple Guy". As a further aside, I briefly thought of Ben Thompson as "The Apple Shill" due to the crypto twitter vernacular at the time.
5. Mark Zuckerberg spoke about "iteration" in his interview with the Acquired podcast team.
6. Lebron James spoke about "attention to detail" and then described how this pushed him to continuously work on the improvement of his basketball game in his interview with the Shop podcast team.
7. Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote about "reps, reps, reps" in his book Total Recall.
8. Charlie Munger wrote about "discipline" as a key to success in his book Poor Charlie's Almanack.
9. In the future, I will release another iteration of this blog post, because I believe that it can be even better with iteration!