202304112152 Intellectual investment is like compound interest

Intellectual investment is like compound interest: the more you do, the more you learn how to do, so the more you can do, etc. I do not know what compound interest rate to apply, but it must be well over 6% — one extra hour per day over a lifetime will much more than double the total output.¹

202109060836 Knowledge should accumulate and it does so at a 202304102048 Compounding Interest rate. 202304102024 Great people have a great deal of drive to do great things and applying that drive to intellectual pursuits is a high 202106221146 Leverage use of time over the long run (202109251140 Play long term-games).

Hamming would put aside Friday afternoons for "great thoughts" such as "what effect will computers have [...] on science generally?" 202110231433 Think week runs in a similar vein. Setting aside dedicated 202304112203 Ten percent time is well worth it. It helps us stay focused on important and interesting work as well as determine the best directions to work in.

Intellectual investment can also be done little and often. 202308141518 Be a pack rat for little facts and 202308271108 Construct hooks for future knowledge. The progress from continually learning small amounts is exponential.

As such, we can treat our knowledge as an intellectual investment portfolio.² Taking the analogy one step further, we should also look to diversify (202304031221 Breadth of knowledge fuels analogy) our portfolio.