Joe Hudson’s second key insight for ending procrastination was adopting an iterative mindset: “The job isn’t to get it done on a timeline. The job is to iterate on it.” When you know you’re making iPhone 1 and there will be an iPhone 2, you can’t particularly fail. There’s never an expectation that it’s supposed to be perfect or even good enough — just better than last time.
This restructures the reward system entirely. Instead of only getting positive reinforcement when you achieve perfection, you get positively reinforced for any forward progress at all. Every attempt is valuable data. Every version teaches you something. The iterative approach transforms the emotional experience of work from high-stakes performance to low-stakes play.
“We’re just constantly iterating to make it better and better and better and better and never an expectation that it’s supposed to be perfect or good enough.”
This mindset also dramatically increases learning speed. Because you’re not worried about judgment, not trying to be perfect, and doing the hard unfamiliar parts first rather than last, you get far more iterations — and iterations are how mastery develops. Joe credits this approach for becoming “really good at” rapid coaching: just do tons of them, accept that people might think you suck, and keep iterating.
Related Concepts
- Iteration beats perfection
- Iterative mindset prevents failure
- Enjoyment dissolves procrastination
- Create like a three-year-old playing, then edit like an expert