outer loop
Surrounding iteration cycle
Outer loop refers to the enclosing loop in nested programming structures, which controls how many times the inner loop executes completely.
More broadly, it describes any higher-level process that governs repeated cycles of a lower-level one: The outer loop of scientific progress is paradigm shifts; the inner loop is normal research.
In productivity contexts, outer loop thinking means stepping back to question whether you're solving the right problem, not just solving it efficiently.
- iterationRepeated procedural pass
- nestedContained within another
- programmingWriting software instructions
- cycleRepeating sequence of events
- enclosingContaining within boundaries
parent · container · boundary · perimeter · orbital · ring road · beltway · highway · circumference · wrapper · encompassing · big picture · recursive · repeat · while · break · continue · scope