If you've ever tried to build a social media following or maintain consistency in a behavior, you know how challenging it can be. It’s far easier to grow your following when you have 100,000 subscribers than when you have just ten. Many people call this the law of compounding, but I prefer to call it the *law of the loop* because it sounds nicer.
When you look around, you see this law at work everywhere. The rich get richer, while the poor grow poorer. The powerful grow more powerful, while the powerless become increasingly marginalized. Unsurprisingly, this dynamic is the foundation of the modern economy. It seems Adam Smith took his Sunday school lessons to heart:
"For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." — Matthew 25:29
This phenomenon of compounding, as the elites like to call it, is both a blessing and a curse. When a behavior persists over a long period, there’s often a mechanism driving that consistency: a feedback loop. While there are many types of feedback loops, depending on whom you ask, I want to focus on one: the *reinforcing feedback loop*.
The reinforcing feedback loop is peculiar. It feeds on itself. It responds to changes in a system—inputs or outputs—and amplifies them. In simpler terms, when a reinforcing loop acts on a system, it increases the input when there’s already a lot and decreases it when there’s little. This is how audience growth works. It starts as a trickle, with the system adding just a little at a time. Then, as it begins to “compound,” the growth accelerates. Before long, you’re gaining more followers in a day than you did in your first three months.
This same principle is the secret behind compound interest. Its true power isn’t in the formula or the lofty terms people throw around. It lies in the loop. I call it the *loop of moreness*. The more attention you attract, the more attention you’re likely to attract in the future. This loop isn’t just a feature of systems; it’s a defining aspect of human behavior.
Understanding the law of the loop can help us unlock the secrets of consistency and exponential growth. Take, for example, a musician. A musician plays an instrument because they love it. They play often, which turns into practice. With practice, they improve, which makes them want to play more. This creates a virtuous cycle: love leads to practice, which leads to skill, which fuels more love, and so the loop continues.
However, there are two difficult points in this loop: the beginning and the latter stages.
At first, every action feels like a burden. The individual struggles to muster the willpower to act. Why even bother? But once they push through, they transform. The behavior becomes second nature. They think about it, do it, and love it, over and over.
This continues until they hit the next challenge: the point of diminishing returns. By now, their efforts yield less noticeable progress. The container is so full that adding more barely makes a difference. It just spills over. At this point, the individual faces a choice: find a bigger container or keep spilling.
The law of the loop, I believe, is a fundamental law of nature. We see it everywhere—in biological systems, the Dunning-Kruger effect, the bell curve, and the path to expertise. It’s so pervasive that, once you notice it, you can’t unsee it.
In future letters, I’ll delve deeper into the law of the loop, exploring its effectiveness, usefulness, and consequences, and revealing how we’re all, in one way or another, caught in its wheels.