Rapid iteration is like what you do in coding

11/19/25:

 

Rapid iteration doesn't seem very rapid at times. After a good deal of trial, and mostly error, I got the video player going the way I'd like. It cycles through the videos that I have on the list. I can add more to the list, and make a small addition to the code, and the video player will accomodate it. It had two videos for awhile, now it has three. If I add another, it will take minimal programming to do it.

 

It sure took a lot of effort.

 

11/18/25:

 

Brief observation here... While learning to code again, I note that I have to keep correcting errors. There's a bunch of those. Well, as you may know, SpaceX uses the rapid iteration technique to improve their rockets. It seems that Elon Musk's first big commercial success may have been a programming project--it may have been PayPal.

But it is better to not to make so many mistakes. Blowing up rockets is an expensive undertaking. Blowing them up in virtual reality may be a lot cheaper...

Incidentally, there's been talk about landing the heavy booster out in the Gulf. Why would Musk want to do that? Could it be that he wants to land them out in the Gulf in order to improve performance. Bringing the booster back to the launch site costs a lot of fuel, which hampers performance. If the booster could land in the Gulf, and then transport back to the launch site, it would enable better performance.

 

An idea that he may have, or may not have, is to re-fly the booster back to the launch site after a launch. The boost back to launch site from the Gulf would involve adding fuel to it again, and then launching a booster alone from the Gulf for the short trip back to the launch site. Why do this? It would save time. It may take a day or two to get it back to the launch site by sea, you see.

 

After all, the whole idea is to have short turnaround time. A booster that can be re-used several times a day could reduce launch costs even further. Also, landing out in the Gulf could increase useful payload to orbit up to maybe 75 tons--instead of 200 tons to orbit, it may go up to 275 tons to orbit. All that while maintaining rapid launch cadence.