Status:: #🌱 Tags:: Links:: <% tp.file.cursor(4) %> ___ # Scaling As is described in [[The Great Mental Models Volume 3]], "When we study a complex system, it’s beneficial to consider how its functioning behaves differently at different scales. Looking at the micro level may mislead us about the macro, and vice versa. In general, systems become more complex as they scale up. Greater size means more connections and interdependencies between parts. Thus, it’s important to combine scale with bottlenecks. As systems become larger, different parts might struggle to keep up. Imagining your business scaling up in some areas faster than others lets you anticipate breakages and bottlenecks." > [!faq] Why do the Japanese have some of the oldest companies in the world? > According to [[The Great Mental Models Volume 3]] "The country is home to an astonishing number of incredibly old companies, known as shinise. Over 50,000 Japanese companies are more than a century old, with nearly 4,000 dating back over 200 years. Why are long-lived companies more common in Japan than the rest of the world? It’s impossible to know for certain. But most of the oldest companies have something in common: the way they scale. Or rather, the way they don’t scale. Long-lived Japanese companies tend to be small. They’re owned and run by relatives and people with close relationships. They usually have fewer than a hundred employees and trade within a small area inside Japan. Durable, loyal customer relationships are integral to their business models. Also, they are driven by a strong internal philosophy that goes beyond their products and services, enabling them to adapt to changing times." ### The Impact of Scaling In Planning For Life: Scaling greatly impacts the degree to which we can plan for things in our life. **We don't know who we will be the farther out we go into the future.** On a week to week scale we are relatively the same. But over months, years, and decades we profoundly change. Therefore it makes little sense to rigorously plan for our lives ten years into the future. Instead I like to plan things out a lot a day in advance, a little from week to week, and quiet moderately from month to month and quarter to quarter. Scaling explains why doubling baking recipes doesn't always work. This reminds me of how [[The Map is Not the Territory]].