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Chapter 10 of 10All chapters

Chapter 10 of 10

Exponential thinking

Beyond money.

Where else it appears

Population growth, viral spread, computing capacity, skill development and habit formation all compound. Small consistent changes dominate large one-off efforts over time.

  • One percent better each day is a factor of 37 over a year, if it compounds.
  • People consistently underestimate exponential growth, in both directions.

The limit

Nothing compounds forever. Resources, competition and saturation eventually flatten every curve, which is why the S shape is more common in nature than the exponential.