---
feed: "DANIEL_ON_SLOPE"
codex_section: "S01"
source: VideoTranscript
title: "SCOTOMAVILLE 01.15 - Curves"
conv_id: "video-8hG5s3Uu5lM-20200511"
share_url: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hG5s3Uu5lM"
created: "2020-05-11"
message_count: 1
category:
  - "Scotomaville"
  - "Personal Development"
  - "Curves"
summary: "Daniel teaches that life is full of curves, not straight lines, and that understanding the difference between linear (addition) and exponential (multiplication) growth is essential for navigating setbacks on the personal Everest. Using NetLogo models he demonstrates how curves appear in networks, viruses, preferential attachment, and social media, showing why linear expectations lead to frustration while recognizing curves restores traction and hope."
keypoints:
  - "The shortest distance between two points is a straight line — but life happens between our plans, creating constant curves."
  - "Linear growth (addition) builds straight lines; exponential growth (multiplication) builds powerful curves found everywhere in biology, finance, networks, and pandemics."
  - "NetLogo models reveal how small biases create massive outcomes: preferential attachment, virus propagation, and small-world connectivity."
  - "Setbacks, do-overs, and waves of Covid-19 are not failures — they are simply curves; recognizing them prevents emotional derailment."
  - "Download NetLogo and explore the models library to visualize and master curves in your own life and business."
tags:
  - "scotomaville"
  - "curves"
  - "exponential-growth"
  - "netlogo"
  - "linear-vs-exponential"
  - "personal-everest"
  - "pandemic-navigation"
  - "self-awareness"
monomyth_stage: "01 - Ordinary World"
gameboard_position: "Camp -4: The Ordinary World"
truth_score: 88
entropy_score: "Low"
tone:
  sentiment: "Practical"
  emotions:
    - "Inspiring"
    - "Insightful"
  sycophancy_level: "None"
  notes: "Daniel speaks energetically outdoors with a light breeze, using simple visuals (hose, graphs, NetLogo) and personal encouragement to make abstract math immediately actionable."
related_events: []
syndication_status:
  arnie: false
  chris: false
  redmond: false
  clint: false
  pilot: false
ma5_inheritance: "Initium"
pre_silicon: true
voice_print: false
codex_candidate: true
phase: "Prologue - Series Foundations / 01.15 Curves"
enriched_date: "2026-04-15"
---
![[8hG5s3Uu5lM_maxres.jpg]]
### Original YouTube Description
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. It's no wonder then that we trigger when life happens between our plans. We expect to make certain progress in a reasonable time, but we are mistaken. Life is FULL of CURVES. Knowing what makes a curve, and what does not will really help you make progress in your summit of your Personal Everest. Set-backs are nothing more than a curve. Do-overs are nothing more than a set of curves. Propagation of Covid-19 follows network dynamics illustrated by the NETLOGO modeling software. You should download and explore the models for yourself. You won't be shocked by the next wave - you'll prepare in advance. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/ https://scotomaville.com

### Cleaned Transcript
**Daniel:**  
Welcome back to another fabulously hot day for leaving Scotomaville! You remember the physicist Stephen Hawking? One of my favorite quotes of his: "What monstrosities would walk our streets, should their faces be as unfinished as their minds!" I'd like you to consider *Leaving Scotomaville* as a finishing school for your mind. And one of the fundamental understandings is the difference between lines and curves. Life is what happens between our plans and most journeys are full of curves.

**Daniel:**  
Most of us are taught that the shortest distance between A and B is a straight line. We might have a very simple plan, you know, water from the faucet to the Airstream. Watch what happens when the pressure gets put on. You see, this demonstrates that having a good feel on how curves are generated and that they are everywhere, will really help us not flip out or trigger when this happens.

**Daniel:**  
Multiplication builds curves, addition builds lines. Curves are powerful. You'll find them in financials, in biology, in social media, in the smartphone you use and the recommenders at all the places you shop. Knowing how a curve is created and being able to spot them is critical to Leaving Scotomaville. Let's do a quick refresher on the difference between linear and exponential.

**Daniel:**  
Linear is like addition and let's apply this to a business, for example. Let's say in the first month of sales, you've gotten three new customers. And you work really hard to add three more customers the following month. You do the same thing for the third month in a row and you've added three additional customers. That means nine, okay? Exponential — a little different. Let's say you have the same effort where you have three sales in your first period. But you teach these people to make referrals and each of those three give you three referrals. And they've taught the same thing, more referrals. Then, what you end up with over that is 3 times 3 is 9. 3 times 9 is 27, obviously more. But let's have a look at that on a graph to see what it looks like because the visual on it is what's important.

**Daniel:**  
So let's say that this is the number of weeks that go by. And over here on the side, this is 10,20,30 customers. So let's plot the linear end of the first period, you have 3. Into the second period 6. Into the third period 9. And here's that straight line, you started with 0. And so you would expect the future to look just like that, given the same linear addition. However an exponential, where you've taught someone else to do it or in some way multiplied rather than addition, in the first you start with zero. But in the first period, you have three equal and the second period, you have nine here and on the third period, you have 27 — clear up here. This exponential looks like a curve, so at the end of a performance period, you can see that this is doing good. But you can see that biology and nature has learned to outperform addition because, obviously, far more. The best takeaway from this episode for you is to multiply. Don't add, don't subtract, multiply.

**Daniel:**  
Let me warn you in advance, DO NOT get off at Circleville! All that takes is a curve, another curve and another curve. Haven't I been here before? Yes! You'll go around, around, around, be a repeat strength offender or in some way just doing the same old thing, expecting different results!

**Daniel:**  
I can hear you 'What do we care about curves? We don't care about curves? We don't want to do curves! Well let me tell you, it's your perception and your expectation that are misaligned with reality! The global pandemic statistics feel different with the sense of scale being changed on the left hand vertical scale, the y-axis. Watch what happens to your perception of how bad the problem is: Whoa! And then they change the scale..Huh? Oh, it's not so bad. Whoa! It's really bad again! Huh? It's not so bad..oh man, it's going up again! It's really bad!..Noo! It's the scale!

**Daniel:**  
So here's what happens there in personal development. Every time you get to a new level of awareness, there's another freaking hill to climb! It's like some of the worst climbs going up the Continental Divide. Every time I thought that I was getting close to the summit, it was just another crest! And that's what's gonna happen when you leave Scotomaville! Every single time you get to what is a crest of your personal Everest, you're feeling like it's a summit! But your spouse isn't or your partner isn't or your company isn't or something! And then all of a sudden, all the emotions come crashing down. And so you have to be aware of the rollercoaster of emotions based on the perception that's not real because the scale on the y-axis keeps getting changed!

**Daniel:**  
You get better at it, there's another summit. You get better again, there's another summit. It starts out, you just can't stand the annoying things that your partner does and then you're facing a global pandemic! Ooohh life has curves. Lots of them.

**Daniel:**  
All around us are complex patterns that can be described in simple terms using the language of mathematics. Some of the most influential are those related to networks — here in your mind, on your smartphone, in your social networks, in your accounting and your bank's finance. And all of these affect the quality of your life. But today, we're in an age of rapidly accelerating change where things are changing faster than we can keep up with. And the compounding of all of the interactions between robotics and 3d printing and AI and genomics and regenerative medicine and predictive analytics. All of these things come together faster than we can even keep up with and we just accept the terms of use without realizing the underlying systems and influences.

**Daniel:**  
And that's what I'd like you to catch, as an overall theme as we look at a number of different models or explanations of that complexity. Try to see it in simple terms — 'compounding' and 'curves'.

**Daniel:**  
I want you to download the software NetLogo. This is the most awesome visualization tool that you can imagine. Launch the NetLogo application, open file, and models library. And this one is Small World's. This model explores the formation of networks that result in this small world phenomenon, the idea that a person is only a couple of connections away from any other person in the world. Charlie Duke on Apollo 16 on the moon and Charlie Dean Rush and myself having coffee.

**Daniel:**  
The setup on this will put 40 'nodes', a node like a person and if any one person wants to connect with any other person in this possible world of 40, click on rewire, these two randomly get connected, these two randomly get connected. Each time you do this, it's random. Or you can rewire all of them. And through these introductions, everyone can connect with everyone else in the network. The average distance between any one person in a network of 40 is only 2.8. Just less than three connections.

**Daniel:**  
Ok, how does that work in the real world? So an introduction to Charlie Duke could connect you with any one of the other astronauts around the world. And that demonstrates the network connectivity that you can also find in LinkedIn and in Facebook, actively at work and social networks.

**Daniel:**  
File — models library — photo preferential attachment — this is one of my favorites because it helps you visualize how a few people can create large connections. Or how some companies can gather the largest viewership or customer base.

**Daniel:**  
You're quite familiar with how this already works. You go to a restaurant, go inside, there's nobody there. What do you do? You second guess. You go to a restaurant and there's a bunch of people... confirmation! Yep. Same thing, with means and videos — the algorithms are biased toward popularity. Building a network that has a slight bias toward popularity, skews the outcome because it favors the few. And you see this in all kinds of information and wealth transfer around the globe where more gets more and those that gots, gets. Preferential attachment is really fun to watch but it's super easy to remember. More gets more.

**Daniel:**  
Back to file, models library. This time pick 'virus on a network'. This model demonstrates the spread of a virus through a network. It's similar to what's going on all across the globe. Digital networks and biological networks work very similar. A number of nodes, number of possible computers or people — we'll set that on 50. Average degree across is six. That means how far to any and one of the others. We'll just click on 'setup', that's our network size. We click 'go'. The blue are nodes that are susceptible. The red are the infected ones and gray are resistant. So as you watch this over time, you can see the status of the network. There's a nice little bell curve and how many are becoming Covid 19 resistant.

**Daniel:**  
What this model demonstrates is that although humans may be done fighting the virus, it's certainly not done trying to kill humans. Also you should note, the propagation occurs in waves. So virus on a network? Waves. So expect that with Covid 19.

**Daniel:**  
My aim for this lesson and for your personal Everest is for you to start considering the number of curves and corrections and changes in direction that may discourage you. But once you understand them for what they are, they become your friend, your ally. And you can put them to use to gain better leverage and get traction faster.

**Daniel:**  
Download NetLogo, look in the models library and start poking around, whether it's in art or biology or chemistry, pure science, earth science, mathematics, psychology, social science. There are models here to learn from in all sorts of fabulous ways.

**Daniel:**  
Here's an example of taking action when the opportunity presents itself. It's not very fancy but it sure is affordable. A dollar fifty nine? The travel ban has been lifted for us to go north! Two hours effort, 5000 feet elevation gain, 26 degree drop in temperature! The windows are open, the door is open for the first time in weeks! We can actually cool it off without an air conditioner, and!? What a great example of getting out of Scotomaville!

---
**CODEX ENTRY**

**Date:** 2020-05-11  
**File:** SCOTOMAVILLE 01.15 - Curves  
**Monomyth Stage:** 01 - Ordinary World  
**Gameboard Position:** Camp -4: The Ordinary World  
**MA5 Domain:** Initium  

**Summary:**  
Daniel uses NetLogo models and everyday examples (hose under pressure, pandemic graphs, preferential attachment) to show that life is full of curves, not straight lines. Linear expectations create frustration; understanding exponential curves and network dynamics restores traction and hope.

**Key Insight:**  
Multiplication builds curves; addition builds lines. Recognize curves early and they become allies instead of obstacles on the personal Everest.

**Narrative Significance:**  
This episode expands the Scotomaville map into mathematical and network reality, giving viewers a visual, downloadable tool (NetLogo) to anticipate waves, setbacks, and compounding change. It shifts awareness from internal blind spots to external patterns, preparing the audience for the accelerating complexity ahead in the Initium journey.

---

**INITIUM.**