It turns out that iteration (and recursion) are pretty mind blowing concepts to have to explain to people. Like for instance just explaining why is it important to iterate faster?

I've gotten lucky explaining it once or twice, [1][2]; but mostly I think it needs to be something someone experiences somehow. Either by programming or engineering or some other way.

[1] Some engineers understand what a control loop is, and you can explain why iterating (faster) actually leads to better precision than trying to measure things precisely in one go inside the loop. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-loop_controller )

[2] You might be lucky to find a manager who really understands PDCA or OODA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDCA , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop . Unfortunately these are also somewhat prone to cargo-culting. On the "upside", OODA cargo-culting may be subject to natural selection.