Embedded Growth Obligations (EGOs)

Embedded Growth Obligations (EGOs): The simple theory of universal institutional collapse in a society built around assumptions of growth.¹

Picture a skyline of Transamerica Buildings and think of all our institutions as pyramids of some kind with different slopes.

EGOs are structures built into institutions in times of growth that assume growth will continue. Institutions with EGOs became prevalent during the broad, technology-led economic growth following World War II and the unlocking of the twin nuclei of cell and atom in the early 1950s. An institution must grow to meet its EGOs, or its leaders will be compelled to lie about the presence of growth. This compromising of incentives causes institutions to tend towards exploitative or sociopathic behaviors, as their leaders face selective pressures to maintain the status quo.

Historian of science Derek de Solla Price first mapped embedded growth obligations in his 1961 book Science Since Babylon, where he noticed that science was on an exponential trajectory that could not reasonably be sustained.

A few examples of institutions with E.G.O.s

Modern U.S. research universities
Journalism
Medicine
Bitcoin
Education
Finance
Law
Corporate ladders
Pension Plans

Eric Tweets

There is one giant pyramid scheme. It just has high multiplicity and different slopes.

Medicine looks like Education looks like Law looks like Finance. Etc.

Journalism is just one example. Step back.

Stop looking at the individual trees when it’s the forest blazing red.
— Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) March 13, 2021

2008 was about the theory of E.G.O.s. And it looked like this. Sooner or later we‘ll get to serious armed conflict w/ developed nations if we want to sit & wait for that.

I guess I have a vague hope that we will wake up earlier when we see Doctors & Nurses in Queens put at risk.
— Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) March 31, 2020

The simple through line is this: your leadership was selected for based on an ability not to upset their own and other institutions while those institutions had to lie about their success & inability to grow.

This leadership cohort is generation ponzi. That’s their superpower.🙏
— Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) March 31, 2020

Any attempt to question their stewardship results in allegations of agism, xenophobia, elitism and sour grapes.

But look at the graphs of any research university. They all tell the same story. You don’t even have to tell me which one. It’s a coming time-bomb.

This is E.G.O.s.
— Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) January 25, 2020

The modern US research university is built on the steepest E.G.O. (embedded growth obligation) of any major sector. It’s a pyramid scheme careening out of control with Boomers at the helm of all of the top ones as they have been hooked up for inter-generational wealth transfer.
— Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) September 13, 2019

“This economy is making liars of us all.”

My model of the universal corruption of our institutional experts via “Embedded Growth Obligations” (or E.G.O.s) is finally getting a political hearing. This, after decades of being ignored.

Thanks to Andrew Yang for taking a risk. 🙏 https://t.co/f1HQnonZQW
— Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) March 13, 2019

This allows us to use Fundamental Physics as a reference for deception.

These folks are our BEST. They aren’t lying about their experiments. They aren’t lying about agreement w theory. They aren’t wrong about expecting another accelerator imho.

Yet the EGOs make even them fib.
— Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) February 2, 2019

A few examples of institutions with E.G.O.s

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