Naval draws a sharp line between repetition and intelligent iteration. “Iterate does not mean repetition. Iterate is not mechanical.” Repetition is mindless activity: doing the same thing without learning.
“Repeating is doing the same thing over and over. Iteration is modifying it with learning and then doing another version of it.” This distinction determines whether you build real leverage. Naval rejects the 10,000 hours rule in favor of 10,000 iterations because time alone doesn’t compound.
Repetition without feedback creates the illusion of progress while keeping you trapped in wage labor. “If I start a business where I go in every day and I’m doing the same thing, let’s say I’m running a retail store down the street where I’m stocking the shelves with food and liquor every single day, I’m not going to learn that much because I’m repeating things a lot.” This is why most traditional careers don’t create true wealth.
Yet Naval values deep repetition for building specific knowledge. He quotes Bruce Lee: “I don’t fear the man who knows a thousand kicks and a thousand punches, I fear the man who’s practiced one punch ten thousand times or one kick ten thousand times.” This type of obsessive focus creates “understanding that comes through repetition and through usage and through logic and foundations.”
The paradox: right repetition compounds into irreplaceable expertise. Wrong repetition traps you in commoditized work.
Naval also rejects repetition for personal change. “When we really do see something clearly, it changes our behavior immediately, and that is far more efficient than trying to change your behavior through repetition.” Wisdom beats habit drilling. True transformation happens through seeing clearly, not mechanical repetition.
This reflects Naval’s broader philosophy: avoid creative stagnation and industrial conditioning. He personally dislikes repetitive work because it kills agency. “Any day in which I solve the same problem twice in a row, I’m pretty unhappy.” For him, “the idea that we repeat ourselves, and we specialize and we pigeon hole ourselves is a modern invention.”