20 February

Maths has one clue for why the world is a bit batshit crazy. Exponential growth, even if you haven't done a lot of maths, means something growing at a great rate. So when it's something in the real world, it's something that won't last. The thing that's less noticed is exponential growth is any growth that is the same positive level over time. So for example, if you make only 1% interest on your savings or an economy grows by only 1%, in an ongoing way, it's exponential growth. You don't have to be Einstein to realise this means economics has sold us a turd. Many of us look for ongoing double-digit growth in things like our super or property or stock, which is exponential growth on steroids. It's literally batshit crazy, because experiential growth is obviously a disaster for most real-world situations. It leads to big crashes. And yet it's the foundation of our entire society.