@hiro wrote about the power of 1% growth:

If we can grow 1% everyday compared with who we were yesterday, it would be 3700% i.e., as 37 many times as who we are today in 1 year later.

Even if it sounds feasible to grow everyday without any degradation, how about 1% growth every week? It would end up with 170% i.e., 1.7 many times as who are today.

James Clear writes about the same thing in his book Atomic Habits (which coincidentally is next on my reading list). His concept of the “aggregation of incremental gains” is quite refreshing, especially in a world that’s more enthralled with disruptive innovation, massive change and defining moments/events of success. “That’s just incremental” gets repeated so often in boardrooms as a protest against new ideas that don’t push the needle by 10x as much. 1% gains just doesn’t sound sexy. But when you break down your whole process, make 1% improvements for each and put them together, you get a significant increase. He shared the fascinating story of how the British cycling team went from 100 years of mediocrity to dominating the Olympic golds within 5 years, just by making tiny 1% improvements in everything they do for cycling - changing beat seats, changing the fabric of their racing suits, etc.  

I love how accessible and un-daunting this growth concept sounds. It’s kind of like writing 200 words per day, isn’t it? Lowering the barrier to sustained effort, which leads to compound interest in terms of growth. Something like Minimal Viable Growth. It’s such a counterintuitive way to think about improvement and growth, be it in sports, business, product and personal development, but that’s where I can zig while other zag. 

With digital products, it’s easy to get analytics and data in order to measure 1%. The challenge is how not all things are easy to measure, like @hiro mentioned. How does one measure 1% growth in say, spiritual growth? Or emotional wellbeing? Perhaps one way is via proxy indicators, like for emotional wellbeing, the number of breakdowns per month, or the number of ice creams eaten (out of stress)? Hahah.

I’m excited to experiment and try this on my products and self growth! Looking forward to diving into Atomic Habits now.