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> These communities are built on strong network effects – where, according to Metcalfe’s law, the value of the network is exponentially increased by the number
by nhaehnle 9y ago
> These communities are built on strong network effects – where, according to Metcalfe’s law, the value of the network is exponentially increased by the number of users who participate.
It's not exponential! Heck, the footnote is citing an article which correctly says the effect is quadratic in the first sentence.
I know this may be a lost cause in the general media, but to see this misuse of terms in this context is really frustrating.
- kmill 9y agoYeah, that bugged me, too. I wonder if it would be better if Metcalfe's law were stated "the value of a network is proportional to the number of links." (At least this isn't a case of talking about the "knee" of an exponential curve! When I taught calculus, I tried demonstrating how rescaling the y-axis shifts the curve horizontally, moving the "knee".)
- jvandonsel 9y agoYeah, a lot of otherwise intelligent people are tripped up by the term "exponential, as in "Hey, the 2 is an exponent, so it must be exponential, right?"
- nhaehnle 9y agoThat's actually a cool explanation for why some people might think this is correct. Let's teach them that 1 is an exponent, too ;)