I'd call myself a perfectionist in that I really want complete and correct solutions to problems and for everything to be "just so". What was crippling in my early career was that I wanted this level of perfection at every step of building.
I was fortunate to work with some really good engineers who convinced me that I couldn't make large things to a high standard by keeping them perfect at every stage. Instead I needed a "forward wave" of problems I was choosing to solve now, and a list of side problems that I'd slap a good enough solution on till I could come back. (there's a real art to ordering what goes into that wave, mastery of this skill implies seniority).
If you can then learn to understand when you can leave all the "good enough solutions" that really are good enough, you'll find you actually iterate quite quickly.
I'd call myself a perfectionist in that I really want complete and correct solutions to problems and for everything to be "just so". What was crippling in my early career was that I wanted this level of perfection at every step of building.
I was fortunate to work with some really good engineers who convinced me that I couldn't make large things to a high standard by keeping them perfect at every stage. Instead I needed a "forward wave" of problems I was choosing to solve now, and a list of side problems that I'd slap a good enough solution on till I could come back. (there's a real art to ordering what goes into that wave, mastery of this skill implies seniority).
If you can then learn to understand when you can leave all the "good enough solutions" that really are good enough, you'll find you actually iterate quite quickly.