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Robert Metcalfe: 2 ideas worth knowing

2 ideas from Robert Metcalfe, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.

• A network's value grows roughly with the square of its users, not in a straight line

  Robert Metcalfe argued in 1980 that a network's value scales with roughly the square of its connected users, since each new member can potentially reach everyone already on it — ec…

  — George Gilder (naming); Robert Metcalfe (original 1980 claim), Metcalfe's Law and Legacy

• A network with twice as many users isn't twice as valuable — it's four times as valuable

  Robert Metcalfe, co-inventor of Ethernet, observed that the value of a communications network grows roughly with the square of the number of people connected to it, since every new…

  — Robert Metcalfe, Metcalfe's Law

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