I have a great respect for incremental improvement, and I've done that sort of thing in my life, but I've alwa... — Steve Jobs

I have a great respect for incremental improvement, and I've done that sort of thing in my life, but I've always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don't know why. Because they're harder. They're much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you've completely failed.

Author: Steve Jobs

Insight: There's a real tension in how we're taught to improve. Everyone celebrates "small habits" and "one percent better each day"—and that stuff works. But there's something else that pulls at us: the urge to actually transform, to blow up what isn't working and rebuild. The difference isn't just about scale. It's emotional. Incremental change feels safe because you're always close to solid ground. Revolutionary change means you have to leave the ground entirely, and everyone watching thinks you've lost your mind. The tricky part is that revolutions feel worse before they feel better. When you're halfway through a major shift—a career change, a different approach to something important—you don't have the comfort of the old way anymore, but the new way hasn't proven itself yet. That's when the doubt hits hardest, and it comes from everywhere: friends, family, your own voice at 3 a.m. The incremental path lets you avoid this valley entirely. The revolutionary path asks you to walk through it. What's interesting is that staying incremental is its own choice, not a neutral default. You're choosing comfort and predictability, which are legitimate choices. But if you feel that pull toward something bigger, you might just be someone who needs the kind of meaning that comes from actually reimagining things. That doesn't make you better—it makes you different, and probably in for a rougher ride.

Source: Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs, p. 568, 2011