A collection of quotes for entrepreneurs curated in February 2026 around a theme iteration and successive refinements.
Quotes for Entrepreneurs Curated in February 2026
I curate these quotes for entrepreneurs from a variety of sources and tweet them on @skmurphy about once a day where you can get them hot off the mojo wire. At the end of each month I curate them in a blog post that adds commentary and may contain a longer passage from the same source for context.
My theme for this month’s “Quotes for Entrepreneurs” is iteration and successive refinements.
+ + +
“In my opinion dividing work into small, but different, batches (eating elephant one bite at a time) should not be called iteration. My reference case for iteration is Newton’s method: improving your solution by repeating an operation on improved approximation of answer.”
Donald Reinertsen (@DReinertsen)
originally Quotes For Entrepreneurs–April 2013
+ + +
“In Ireland the inevitable never happens and the unexpected constantly occurs.”
+ + +
“Everything we know is only some kind of approximation, because we know that we do not know all the laws yet. Therefore, things must be learned only to be unlearned again or, more likely, to be corrected.”
Richard P. Feynman
+ + +
“All models are approximations. Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful. However, the approximate nature of the model must always be borne in mind.”
George E. P. Box In “Response Surfaces, Mixtures, and Ridge Analyses”
+ + +
“Alas! we know that ideals can never be completely embodied in practice. Ideals must ever lie a great way off–and we will thankfully content ourselves with any not intolerable approximation”.
Thomas Carlyle in “On Heroes, Hero-worship and the Heroic in History” (1840) [Gutenberg]
+ + +
“It’s not easy taking my problems one at a time when they refuse to get in line.”
Ashleigh Brilliant
Some problems come with strict time limits and are not amenable to iteration. Your judgement can improve over a series of related problems, provided you survive the challenge each problem presents.
+ + +
“Historians approach their subject from the moving platform of their own times, with the result that the past changes shape continually Anyone who lives to reread his own work long afterwards must therefore expect to recognize signs and hallmarks of the inevitable displacement that time brings to historical understanding.”
William H. McNeill in “‘The Rise of the West’ After Twenty-Five Years.“
This is from his retrospective preface to the 1991 edition of “Rise of the West,” originally published in 1963. McNeill offers a perspective on iteration: as we learn more we revisit older narratives and the assumptions that underlie them to refine our understanding.
In addition to “Rise of the West,” I have read three other books by McNeill: “Plagues and Peoples,” “Venice: Hinge of Europe,” and “The Pursuit of Power.” I appreciate his systems perspective on the forces at work in historical contexts.
+ + +
“The scientist explores the world of phenomena by successive approximations. He knows that his data are not precise and that his theories must always be tested. It is quite natural that he tends to develop healthy skepticism, suspended judgment, and disciplined imagination.
Edwin Powell Hubble in “Commencement Address, California Institute of Technology (10 Jun 1938), ‘Experiment and Experience.’
+ + +
“In doing we learn.”
George Herbert in Jacula Prudentum (1651).
+ + +
“The scientist is a practical man with a practical aim: the next approximation. The scientist builds slowly, if he is dissatisfied with any of his work, even near the foundation, he can replace it without damage to the remainder.
The theory that there is an ultimate truth, although very generally held by mankind, does not seem useful to science except in the sense of a horizon toward which we may proceed, rather than a point which may be reached.”
Gilbert Newton Lewis in “The Anatomy of Science” (1926), 6-7.
condensed from:
“I have no patience with attempts to identify science with measurement, which is but one of its tools, or with any definition of the scientist which would exclude a Darwin, a Pasteur or a Kekulé.
The scientist is a practical man and his are practical aims. He does not seek the ultimate but the proximate. He does not speak of the last analysis but rather of the next approximation. His are not those beautiful structures so delicately designed that a single flaw may cause the collapse of the whole. The scientist builds slowly and with a gross but solid kind of masonry. If dissatisfied with any of his work, even if it be near the very foundations, he can replace that part without damage to the remainder. On the whole, he is satisfied with his work, for while science may never be wholly right it certainly is never wholly wrong; and it seems to be improving from decade to decade.
The theory that there is an ultimate truth, although very generally held by mankind, does not seem useful to science except in the sense of a horizon toward which we may proceed, rather than a point which may be reached.”
Gilbert Newton Lewis in “The Anatomy of Science” (1926), 6-7.
+ + +
“Science does not aim at establishing immutable truths and eternal dogmas; its aim is to approach the truth by successive approximations, without claiming that at any stage final and complete accuracy has been achieved.”
Bertrand Russell in “Is The Universe Finite” collected in “The ABC of Relativity” (1925) [Archive]
+ + +
“The closest you can get to perfection is constant improvement.”
Brendan Brazier
+ + +
“For the theory-practice iteration to work, the scientist must be mentally ambidextrous; fascinated equally on the one hand by possible meanings, theories, and tentative models to be induced from data and the practical reality of the real world, and on the other with the factual implications deducible from tentative theories, models and hypotheses.
George E. P. Box in “Science and Statistics” (1976)
+ + +
“The hallmarks of Scottish medicine were close clinical observation, hands-on diagnosis, and thinking of objects such as the human body as a system–not so different from the practical approach of engineers such as James Watt. In fact, science and medicine were probably more closely linked in Scotland than any other European country. Together with mathematics, they formed the triangular base of the Scottish practical mind.”
Careful observation, diagnosis, and a systems perspective are key elements of the entrepreneur’s mindset.
+ + +
“People misunderstand what built Silicon Valley. It wasn’t just intelligence. It was the stamina to endure embarrassment, the courage to diverge from the ‘ideal path,’ and the sheer will to keep going.”
Bassel Ojjeh in “Is YC for Cowards?“
+ + +
“Sometimes you have to push past the failures and doubt and no’s.
Sometimes those are the signals that you’re on the wrong path and you have to pivot or stop. How do you know which is which?”
Jason Cohan Dec-20-2024 tweet
It’s a hard problem. While there are search aspects to early market it’s as much a design challenge as a discovery challenge. It’s not a puzzle with pieces that fit only one way, its a collection of LEGO you can combine in many ways–and you don’t need to use all of them. Two related articles by Jason Cohan worth reading: “Perseverance” and “Predict the Future.”
+ + +
“There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you’ve made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you’ve made a discovery.”
Enrico Fermi
+ + +
“Iteration, not ideation, is the most important part of early stage entrepreneurship. You have to have a lot of ideas, a lot of bad ideas, if you want to end up with a good one. You have to make a lot of prototypes and put share them with prospects who can give you feedback. And revise or abandon them if necessary.”
Marc Randolph in “Your Idea Sucks, But That Doesn’t Matter“
+ + +
“You can only iterate on something after it’s been released. Prior to release, you’re just making the thing. Even if you change it, you’re just making it. Iterating is when you change/improve after it’s out. So if you want to iterate, SHIP.”
Jason Fried
+ + +
“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
Ernest Hemingway in New York Journal-American (11 July 1961)
This reminds me of an aphorism of Hippocrates:
“Life is short,
and craft long,
opportunity fleeting,
experimentation perilous,
and judgment difficult.”
Hippocrates
+ + +
“The fastest way to iterate is to learn from others.
- Read good books
- Talk to people who have done it before
- Soak up the lessons of the past
Learn from the experiments history has already run and you can start the race halfway finished.”
James Clear
+ + +
“Iteration requires two distinct skills that work in collaboration with one another. First, the curating skill, which is able to realize and harness seeds of potential in ideas that are incomplete. This skill allows the feedback loop to push the work in completely new directions. The second is the proofing skill, which can earmark weak points that need improving. This is polish and refinement.
If you’re good at either one of these skills, you’re going to have people showing up at your door asking you to look at their work. Want to know which you’re good at? When do people show you what they’re working on? If it’s towards the beginning, you’re stronger at curation. If it’s towards the end of their process, you’re probably more of a proofer. But ideally, you should try to have both skills. There’s a lot of waste in gold mining. You want to have sharp eyes that can spot glimpses of gold, and then be able to polish them into something special.”
Frank Chimero in “On Iteration“
+ + +
“I think basically zero layoffs are happening because of AI. It’s just a plausible excuse for corporate reputation management.
AI does reduce hiring rates not because people believe it can do roles, but due to general uncertainty, chaos, and the sense that team gaps can be managed longer.”
Tom Goodwin in a Feb-5-2026 tweet
Which was replied to by Victor Okefie (@LucidTheEagle) “AI is the perfect scapegoat, technologically plausible and morally neutral. The real cause is often a strategic reallocation of capital or a correction from over-hiring. The ‘uncertainty’ it creates is a force multiplier for austerity; it lets management freeze roles under the guise of futurism, not failure. The gap isn’t filled by AI, but by stretching the remaining team thinner under the banner of ‘waiting to see.'”
Possibly related:
AI winter is experiencing global warming.
Andrew Shindyapin (@ph0rque)
+ + +
“Good engineering is characterized by gradual, stepwise refinement of products that yields increased performance under given constraints and with given resources. […]
The most difficult design task is to find the most appropriate decomposition of the whole into a module hierarchy, minimizing function and code duplications. […]
Communication problems grow as the size of the design team grows. Whether they are obvious or not, when communication problems predominate, the team and the project are both in deep trouble. […]
Reducing complexity and size must be the goal in every step—in system specification, design, and in detailed programming.”
Niklaus Wirth in “A Plea for Lean Software” (1995)
+ + +
“Few ideas work on the first try. Iteration is key to innovation. […]
I have learned that innovation requires a clear vision, many iterations, and a willingness to learn and improve. ”
Sebastian Thrun Update on our Summer Pilot
+ + +
The goal of a customer interview is to uncover the truth, not to sell. If you don’t come away knowing something new and actionable, you’ve wasted the interviewee’s time and yours. Your mindset should be: ‘What does this person know that invalidates something I thought was true?'”
Jason Cohan in “The Iterative-Hypothesis Customer Development Method“
+ + +
“Something that has always puzzled me all my life is why, when I am in special need of help, the good deed is usually done by somebody on whom I have no claim.”
William Feather
I am a big fan of William Feather and have blog about him several times:
- Recipes For Longevity in “Mutual Improvement Clubs”
- William Feather on “Perseverance Rewarded”
- William Feather on “Dead Business”
- William Feather’s “The Business of Life”
- More from William Feather’s “The Business of Life”
+ + +
“Stamina is one of the most universally useful traits you can develop. It’s a more broadly applicable advantage than things that are situationally useful, like strength, intelligence, speed, popularity, or motivation. It’s the ability to chip away at goals despite a lack of visible progress. To stay patient. To be on time. To push through difficult material. To forego momentary comfort. To follow instructions or proceed without them. To not headbutt others. To keep an open mind and be willing to renew your perspective.”
Robin Janssen in “Stamina is a Quiet Advantage“
Also collected in his “Working Wisdom.” Robin Janssen is a pen name for Robert Jones. Included because iterations require stamina and an ability to keep your mind open to new perspectives as you learn from earlier solution efforts.
+ + +
“Simulation compresses whatever it can reach. Human effort migrates to whatever it can’t.”
Will Manidis (@WillManidis) in “Rented Virtue“
Simulation is just calculation; it can be plotting a graph from an equation, using Excel to forecast or predict the behavior of a system, or a more complex model that solves a system of equations using numerical methods. It’s a way to make your imagination visible, to project the likely consequences of a decision on a situation based on your assessment of starting conditions. It trades the time needed for calculation for the consequences of an unwittingly poor decision. It enables you to iterate by restarting with the same initial conditions and making different, and hopefully better, choices.
+ + +
“Program construction consists of a sequence of refinement steps, where a given task is broken up into a number of subtasks. Each refinement in the description of a task may be accompanied by a refinement of the description of the data which constitute the means
of communication between the subtasks. Refinement of the description of program and data structures should proceed in parallel.During the process of stepwise refinement, a notation which is natural to the problem in hand should be used as long as possible.
Each refinement requires a number of design decisions based upon a set of design criteria such as efficiency, storage economy, clarity, and regularity of structure. You must be conscious of these decisions and weigh the various aspects of design alternatives in the light of these criteria. You may need to revoke earlier decisions and back up, if necessary, to the start.”
Niklaus Wirth in “Program development by stepwise refinement“
+ + +
“To choose the right level of fidelity, consider the following five questions:
- Who is the audience for this prototype?
- What is the one most important purpose of this prototype?
- How many iterations of this prototype are necessary?
- How much uncertainty is there in the project at this stage?
- What tools can be leveraged to create the prototype?
Often prototyping is most useful when a sequence of prototypes can be done in rapid succession. Each builds on the learning and discoveries from the previous iteration. When choosing a fidelity, consider the benefit of doing more iterations at lower fidelity.
+ + +
+”Technological advance is an inherently iterative process. One does not simply take sand from the beach and produce a Dataprobe. We use crude tools to fashion better tools, and then our better tools to fashion more precise tools, and so on. Each minor refinement is a step in the process, and all of the steps must be taken.”
Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, “Looking God in the Eye” (Accompanies the Polymorphic Software technology) from a cut scene in Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri