Exponential Growth

Growth that occurs with repsect to the value of the object. The more you use it, the faster it grows. It’s like a snow-ball effect: as a snowball rolls, it picks up more snow, gets bigger, rolls faster, picks up more snow per roll than before, and so on exponentially.

Linear growth: object continues to grow at the same rate.

Exponential growth: object continues to grow at an increasingly faster rate i.e., the object and its rate of growth are both increasing.

Examples of things that grow exponentially:

• Population growth until 50 years back¹: More people in each generation giving birth to yet more people perpetuates the cycle of exponential population growth.

• Technology adoption: As awareness and familiarity of a technology (television, dishwashers, cellphones, etc.) spreads, more people adopt it, governments & private institutions reduce costs and improve the technology leading to accelerated adoption².

• Sharing of viral content: The more a viral content is shared, the more exposure it gets, the more opportunity there is for the next batch of content watchers to share it onwards, spreading it like a wildfire.

References