Exploring Power Laws in Technology and Innovation

Geoffrey West is a physicist, former president and distinguished professor of the Santa Fe Institute. His book, “Scale: The Universal Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Businesses” (2017), is a masterpiece.

In this episode, we talk about the power laws behind living organisms, cities, businesses, and technologies. By the end of this episode, you will know more about the power law behind the heartbeat of all mammals, the number of patents and crime in big cities compared to small cities, innovation, the way technology scales, and more. I hope you enjoy the conversation.

Find me on X at @ProfSchrepel. Also, be sure to subscribe to the Scaling Theory podcast; it helps its growth.

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References

• Geoffrey West, ⁠Scale: The Universal Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Businesses⁠ (Penguin Books, 2017)
• George J. Stigler, “The Economies of Scale”, The Journal of Law & Economics 1 (1958): 54–71
• Michael HR Stanley, et al. “⁠Scaling Behaviour in the Growth of Companies”, Nature 379.6568 (1996): 804-806.APA
• W. Brian. Arthur, “⁠Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-In by Historical Events”, The Economic Journal 99.394 (1989): 116-131.
• Madeleine IG Daepp, et al. “⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Mortality of Companies⁠”, Journal of the Royal Society Interface 12.106 (2015): 20150120.APA
• Jiang Zhang, et al. “⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Scaling Laws and a General Theory for the Growth of Public Companies⁠⁠”, arXiv preprint arXiv:2109.10379 (2021)