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+# acceleration > position: growth compounds like investments
+
+this metaphor came out of the [[agency talk|wiki/mentorship/agency-talk]] and it stuck with me harder than almost anything else.
+
+## the original framing
+
+a cofounder at the startup explained the org's mentality like this:
+
+> "think about it like stocks: money grows up and up and cost to buy things goes down and down. skills + mentality goes up and up and cost to do things goes down and down."
+
+the point: acceleration matters more than position. where you are right now is less important than how fast you're moving and in what direction.
+
+he backed it up: "we have grown so much. if we started over with nothing, we could get back to this in 2-3 months." the assets weren't the code, the hardware, the office. the assets were the people and their rate of improvement.
+
+## why this reframes everything
+
+before hearing this, i was obsessed with position. what have i done? what can i show? what's on my resume? the stocks metaphor flips that:
+
+- a person who's mediocre but accelerating is worth more than a person who's great but plateaued
+- the "stuff that the interns are doing, we could probably do in 1/20 of the time" — the interns' output wasn't the point. their growth rate was.
+- when the cofounder first joined, he was doing wiring work that the electrical engineers could have done faster. he didn't care. he was there to compound.
+
+## how i applied it
+
+### dropping todo items
+
+once i internalized this, i started [[prioritizing differently|wiki/strategies/prioritization]]. the question became: "does this accelerate me?" not "is this productive?"
+
+- reflecting on a mediocre math camp vs reflecting on the startup experience — obvious choice
+- going to a finance essentials program vs going deeper on the work right in front of me — obvious choice
+- working on personal projects during a once-in-a-lifetime immersive experience — obvious mistake
+
+### evaluating people
+
+the stocks metaphor also changed how i think about who to spend time with. "once you find a node, don't let go. good nodes bring you in flows of people." the question isn't whether someone is impressive right now — it's whether they're on a steep curve.
+
+### compounding skills
+
+"to increase output over time, do skills that compound." the CEO put it bluntly: "people think growth is dumb — no way people are growing 20% per week. but actually look at pioneers, they output insane amounts."
+
+the meta-skills that compound fastest:
+- navigating new environments
+- leading a team
+- learning new things
+- reading people and situations
+
+these aren't domain skills. they're multipliers on everything else.
+
+## the dark side
+
+this framing can be addictive. when everything is about acceleration, it's easy to devalue rest, relationships, and anything that doesn't obviously compound. i've had to learn that [[energy management|wiki/things-that-worked/energy-hacks]] and [[social connection|wiki/things-that-worked/social-wins]] are themselves compounding investments, not distractions from the real work.
+
+also: the metaphor can breed arrogance. "the world is pretty shit, most of the people are pretty shit" — that's the elitist version of this idea, and while there's a kernel of truth in setting high standards, it's easy to lose empathy along the way.
+
+a friend put it well: "friends ground you." the same people who taught me about acceleration also needed others to keep them from flying off the rails.
+
+---
+
+*see also: [[agency talk|wiki/mentorship/agency-talk]], [[prioritization|wiki/strategies/prioritization]], [[mindset shifts|wiki/things-that-worked/mindset-shifts]]*
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