October 2026
- Oct 26, 2026ConceptsMetcalfe's Law: Why Networks Get More Valuable as They GrowBriscoe, Odlyzko and Tilly argued in IEEE Spectrum in 2006 that treating every possible connection as equally valuable vastly overcounts, and proposed that value grows in proportion to n log n instead, a curve still faster than linear but far gentler than the square. Metcalfe answered in 2013 with a decade of Facebook data he said fit the quadratic form. The article traces the law from an Ethernet sales slide to the exponent that remains genuinely unsettled.
- Oct 19, 2026ConceptsLittle's Law ExplainedFix any two of work in progress, throughput and time in system, and the third is settled. A team finishing five tasks a week with ten tasks open averages two weeks per task, and nothing about how the team works internally is needed to know that. The practical lesson is that cutting work in progress shortens delivery immediately, while raising throughput means buying capacity. Also covers the two conditions the law needs: a stable system and long run averages.
- Oct 12, 2026ConceptsThe Law of Diminishing Returns ExplainedBiologists derived the same curve independently: Charnov's 1976 marginal value theorem predicts a forager leaves a patch when its intake rate falls to the average available across the environment, and Cowie's 1977 study of great tits found they go close to that optimum, lingering when travel between patches is costly. The article separates increasing, diminishing and negative returns, and argues the way past the curve is to unfix the binding constraint.
No guides match that search. Try a shorter phrase, or clear the search.