The Rebel Allocator

by Jacob Taylor

“Here’s a little quiz,” he said. Damn it. “If you could get one percent better at something every day, how much would you improve in one year?” I knew this was a trick question and you couldn’t just add up one percent 365 times. “It’s more than 365% because of compounding, so like five times better?” I said. “You’re right about the compounding,” he said. “But you’re not even close on the effect. The answer is thirty-seven times better by the end of one year. I know people your age are dependent upon calculators,” he said with a teasing wink. “All you have to do is plug in one-point-oh-one to the power of three-sixty-five. Here’s another quiz: if you got one percent worse every day, how much would you deteriorate?” My first thought was -365%, but that made no sense so I simply guessed, “Umm, eighty percent worse?” “I guess math isn’t your strong suit,” he said teasingly. “The answer is minus ninety-seven percent. Point-nine-nine to the power of three-sixty-five on your calculator.” “Wow, so one percent better is a thirty-seven x and one percent worse knocks you down to three percent? That’s a big difference,” I said.