The following video is about math, of all things. Specifically, the most important math all citizens and leaders need to know, and yet, few of us do, including me.
Many of us do know about the power of "compound interest." This is the central mathematical concept that makes it possible for everyday people to build wealth, such as a retirement nest-egg.
But, what many of us don’t know or haven’t fully considered is that "compound interest" is only one example of what math calls "the exponential function."
Why should this matter to you, to me, to all of us? Because the very same "exponential function" that explains the miracle of compound interest also explains the debacle of compound debt, unsustainable growth, and lie-laden statistics about how long resources will supposedly last.
Watching the following video made it clear to me that understanding the "exponential function" is absolutely critical for every citizen, every business person, every banker, every government leader, and every future planner. I would go so far as to say that ANYONE who does NOT fully understand it is absolutely doomed to make dangerously poor decisions for themselves, their business, and society (as citizens or as leaders), even while thinking they are making good ones.
I urge you in the stongest possible way to invest a little over an hour of your life to watch a video that may in some surprising ways be the most important video of your life. It is divided into eight segments so that if you are unable to watch the entire video in one sitting, you can watch it in roughly nine-minute segments instead.
For me, watching this video was worth every single minute. In fact, I found it so deeply helpful that I bought a copy of the DVD through the contact information at the end of the last segment. The professor emeritus who gave this lecture is a classic old-school true academic. It is a pity that not all of us have had the rare privelege of learning from clear-thinking non-biased professors like Dr. Albert A. Bartlett.
Dr. Bartlett recorded the following lecture around the turn of the century at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He joined their faculty in 1950 after having received his PhD in physics from Harvard.
