Stanford University economist Paul Romer has observed, "Every generation has perceived the limits to growth that finite resources and undesirable side effects would pose if no new recipes or ideas were discovered. And every generation has underestimated the potential for finding new recipes and ideas. We consistently fail to grasp how many ideas remain to be discovered. The difficulty is the same one we have with compounding: possibilities do not merely add up; they multiply.”
I hadn’t decided one day, as a rational adult, that hot water was something I should have. It was a custom that I had been born into, a belief I had inherited, an indoctrination. And my temperament was suspicious of those. If hot water was indeed a necessity I would find out for myself. I would catch pneumonia, or get sick from eating off of dishes washed in cold water. But when instead I found that hot water was not a necessity, that it was a luxury, I overcame my conditioning and dealt a satisfying blow to the status quo. I felt myself standing apart from the sheep-like masses who had been led to confuse their wants and needs.
