# The flywheel effect Created On: 06-12-2023 10:00 am Type:: #note/evergreen🌲 #note/tidy🧹 #concept Up:: [[Concepts (MOC)]] Topics:: [[Psychology (MOC)]] Related:: [[Habits (MOC)]] --- The idea of compounding and perpetual outcomes that don't have distinct inputs that one can point to as the "tipping" point that enables that perpetual outcome. Think of a large stone disk on a shaft. If we push the stone, it'll be harder at first than it will be later because the compounding momentum of each of our pushes builds upon the momentum of the prior. This builds to a point where, in a perpetual manner, the wheel continues to spin. This can be heavily connected to human behavior. When we build [[Systems thinking|systems]], they often . This is closely associated with [[Habitual behavior]]. The challenge is that, especially when the flywheel is moving in a "negative" direction, it is challenging because we're attempting to stop the compounding momentum that continues to accelerate itself. This generates [[Friction]] in various forms. The question of all flywheel effects should be: where do they end? Because, in a perpetual state, they'll continue building momentum indefinitely, at least theoretically. There will be, at some point, a "give" moment where the flywheel's momentum overcomes its supporting and surrounding structures. Obviously Because *we* weren't the ones who specifically dictated this final poor outcome, it can be difficult to "understand what went wrong". We must work distinctly back before the system/wheel became perpetual itself. This can be jarring and even difficult to do. Again, because, there will have never been a "single push" or effort that led to that ultimate tipping point or outcome - it wasn't the final push, it was the compounding nature of all those before and after it. > We’ve allowed the way transitions look from the _outside_ to drive our perception of what they must feel like to those going through them on the _inside._ From the outside, they look like dramatic, almost revolutionary breakthroughs. But from the inside, they _feel_ completely different, more like an organic development process.