Critical Mass
Critical mass is a concept from physics. It is defined as the minimum amount of a fissile material required to create a self-sustaining fission reaction.
In other words, it’s the amount of reactant necessary for something to happen and to keep happening.
While it is a physics concept, it is also applied to other fields like sociology, finance and behavioural economics.
The concept is also sometimes referred under the guise of “Tipping point”, made popular by Malcolm Gladwell.
The Bamboo Tree
Bamboo seeds do not show a lot of major signs of growth for the first 4-5 years of their lives. But once they hit that tipping point they grow to incredible heights (80-90 feet) within 6 - 9 months.
This begs the question? Why did it take so long for the seed to show any visible development but only took 6 months to grow into a 90 feet tree?
The answer is that while on the surface there was nothing visibly happening to the seed, there was a lot that was happening behind the scenes or in the case below the soil.
And when all the things happening below the soil reached a point where the seed was in a good position to grow, it grew.
Deciding as a group
A lot of trends (even the bad ones) can grow exponentially once they hit a tipping point. The overwhelming consensus about slavery till a couple of centuries back was in favour of it.
There were so many people who owned slaves that not being one would make the person an outcast. This is one of the reasons why experts argue that deciding on important issues as a group is often not the best way. Even a horrible practice like slavery can gain critical mass and almost become the “norm” if left to the wisdom of the crowd.
Usually, the larger the crowd, the less likely the individuals will own up to their own behaviour and therefore tend to make immoral or incorrect choices.
Talking of slavery in the 19th century, a small group of people started advocating against the practice.
While it was a fringe movement at the time, the scope of opinions and consensus among historically slave owning families was not unanimous anymore.
Eventually more and more people joined in and finally when the number of people who advocated for slavery fell below a certain number and the numbers against it hit a tipping point, the practice was more or less abolished through law and social stigma.
(I use “more or less” because the practice is happening to this day in countries like Libya: BBC story)
Business & Investing
Let me share a personal example from back in 2012 when I was doing some content writing work on the side while attending university.
I was contacted by a small digital marketing agency from Eastern Europe who read my blogs and wanted to know if I would write for their clients.
They promised me that they will pay me more than what I usually charge on one condition - the payment will be in Bitcoin.
At the time, I didn’t know a lot about Bitcoin and after doing a little bit of research on what I could do with it (not a lot at the time), I decided to pass on the offer.
In 2012, Bitcoin did not hit that critical mass and ergo didn’t have a lot of vendors accepting it as an alternative to fiat currency.
Roll the calendar forward to 2021 and it is a completely different story.
More and more vendors today accept Bitcoin.
At the end of November 2020, there were 60 million wallet users.
This is a prime example of a product that has hit that critical mass number.
When it comes to businesses, a good way to assess if they have reached critical mass is to identify their advantages from economies of scale.
If a business has reached a point where it is able to deliver a product/services at a significantly lower cost due to the scale of operations, then it is safe to assume that they have achieved critical mass.
Using Critical Mass/Tipping Point
Critical mass can be applicable to a lot of aspects in our day to day lives.
The mere acknowledgement of the concept into our thinking can help us ascertain opportunities and threats far more easily.
For example, if you’ve got a smoking addiction then acknowledging each cigarette is pushing you towards a steep drop will likely motivate you to kick the habit.
However, if you smoke a cigarette and immediately afterwards you assume that your body is fine just because you do not feel any significant damage at that moment, then you are more likely to continue with the habit.
On the other hand, if you feel that you are not losing weight in spite of working out consistently then acknowledging that your body is working in the background and there is progress happening, will keep you motivated to continue working out.
If you are running a business, sitting down and calculating the tipping point at which you’ll hit critical mass and achieve economies of scale will help you plan your resources efficiently.
There are a lot of advantages in both acknowledging critical mass and planning for it.
So that’s it! What are your thoughts on this?
Let me know by responding to this email.
Also, I just launched credplex.com a couple of days back and it is free to join, so check it out and create your account.
Great AMA Guests
There are a few people who came to our community and shared their insights on building products and businesses.
They didn’t have to do it, but they did.
And for that I am thankful.
They make communities like ours special.
We did 4 AMAs last year, so here they are:
Aline Lerner, Founder Interviewing.io [ Website | Twitter ]
Mubashar Iqbal, Product Hunt MOTY 2016 - [ Website | Twitter ]
Chris Laskie, Founder Laskie.co - - [ Website | Twitter ]
Aleksandr Voldarsky, Founder Lemon.io - [ Website | Twitter ]
So please do check them out on social and support their businesses.