The Law of Accelerating Returns states that the rate of change of progress accelerates because humans can use the technology at their disposal to progress faster than previous generations could without the technology. (View Highlight)
Note: Ray kurzweil
Since I hit send on July 12th, 29 new unicorns have been minted, and all 779 are worth a combined $2.485 trillion, now slightly higher than Apple’s $2.41 trillion market cap. (View Highlight)
This overly simple graphic is also true: previous generations’ hard work makes it easier to build new things. (View Highlight)
Note: A different kind of hard
If it would have taken 100 employees to build a customer-ready product before and today it only takes 10, then those 90 extra employees can go start nine more companies. (View Highlight)
Note: Company size is falling
In Andy Weir’s latest hit, Project Hail Mary, a character named Stratt described the past as “unrelenting mystery,” saying:
For fifty thousand years, right up to the Industrial Revolution, human civilization was about one thing and one thing only: food. Every culture that existed put most of their time, energy, manpower, and resources into food.
Mechanizing agriculture freed humans up to focus on other things. Technology has evolved quickly over the past couple of centuries as a result. I’m not comparing APIs to food, but a similar dynamic is at play: when people don’t have to focus on day-to-day survival, they can invent new things. (View Highlight)
