Economics

Every time cumulative production doubles, unit costs fall by a steady percentage

In 1936, engineer Theodore Wright found that as Curtiss-Wright's cumulative aircraft output doubled, the labor hours needed per plane fell by a consistent percentage rather than a fixed amount. The pattern, now called Wright's law or the experience curve, has since held up across cars, computer chips and solar panels, and underpins many forecasts of how fast new technologies get cheap.

Theodore P. Wright, Factors Affecting the Cost of Airplanes — Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences, 1936

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