Scale Book Summary - Scale Book explained in key points

Listen to the Intro

00:00

Scale summary

Name: Scale
Rating: 4.1 (56 reviews)
Author: Geoffrey West

Geoffrey West

The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies and Companies

4.1 (56 ratings)

23 mins

Table of Contents

Scale
summarized in 9 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 9

What’s in it for me? Get insight into the complex relationships of size and scale.

Imagine that you have a cube with sides measuring 10 cm, and therefore a volume of one liter. Now imagine a second cube next to it, with sides measuring 20 cm, or twice that of the first cube. What’s the volume of the second cube? Easy, it’s twice that of the first cube, right? Wrong. It’s actually eight times greater!

As you’ll see in these blinks, when it comes to size and scaling, our intuition often leads us astray. Luckily, we can make up for this by studying what are known as scaling laws, the laws that govern relationships between various phenomena as they scale. Let’s have a closer look at these laws and see what they can tell us about the world.

In these blinks, you’ll find out

why Godzilla can’t exist;
why steamships were considered unprofitable in the early 1800s; and
what scaling laws can tell us about our future on Earth.

A hidden pattern sustains all life and culture.

Earth is home to over 8 million different species, from microscopic bacteria to enormous blue whales, as well as an incredible diversity of social life, cultures, cities and traditions.

It can be quite overwhelming to think about. But the truth is that there are some surprising systematic patterns behind the complexity of biological and socioeconomic life. For instance, if you plot a graph of the metabolic rate of animals – that is, the amount of energy they spend per unit of time – against the body mass of those animals, you’ll see a perfectly straight line.

That’s right; the metabolic rate of any animal from a mouse to an elephant is perfectly fixed relative to its body mass. Not only that, but if in the same equation you substitute the metabolic rate for the total number of heartbeats in an animal’s life, you’ll get another straight line!

There is, however, one trick at play. To get this result, the scales need to be logarithmic, meaning the units on each axis need to increase by factors of ten, so from one to ten to 100, and so on.

Take an example from the world of economics: if you plot out the number of patents registered in a city against that city’s population, you’ll find that the number of patents will increase 15 percent faster than the population, also producing a straight line.

Are these incredible correlations mere coincidences?

Hardly. What you’re actually observing are called scaling relationships. The examples above are just a peek into the ways organisms and cities scale with size, and understanding this phenomenon can illuminate much about the world.

For instance, new drugs are often tested on mice to model the way they’ll impact the human body. However, mice are of course much smaller than people – so how can scientists draw conclusions about humans from tests on rodents? Well, scaling can explain the answer. In the following blinks, you’ll learn about other incredible ways scaling can explain organisms, cities and even companies.

Scaling laws are rarely linear, and this has important implications.

Crowds go wild for mega monsters in movies like Godzilla. But could such beasts actually exist in real life?

Most people would tell you such an idea is pure science fiction and, in the seventeenth century, the Italian physicist and mathematician Galileo Galelei already knew they were right. After all, scaling laws rarely work in a linear fashion.

Biological scaling laws can be explained by a network-based theory.

By now, we know how the relationship between the metabolic rate and body mass of nearly all animals abides by a simple scaling law.

However, we can be even more precise. We can also say that an increase of body mass by the factor 10⁴, or by four orders of magnitude, will result in an increase of the metabolic rate by a factor of 10³, or three orders of magnitude.

Biological networks extend toward a fourth dimension, explaining why humans stop growing.

If you look closely at the mathematical details behind scaling laws, there’s yet another surprise to be discovered: in most cases, biological scaling factors involve the numbers ¼ or ¾.

For instance, the number of leaves taken as a function of a plant’s mass increases by a factor of 2 to the power of ¾. So, what explains the mysterious prevalence of the number four?

Scaling reveals surprising similarities between seemingly different cities, while biological networks are analogous to urban centers.

Consider the cities of New York, Paris and São Paulo. They might not appear to have much in common; after all, they’re in disparate corners of the world and are homes to highly divergent cultures.

Even so, there are a number of hidden similarities in these metropolises, and scaling relationships can make them plain to see.

The speed of life, social interaction and economic activity all scale with the size of a city.

Modern life has become so tied to the city that the author feels a new human era is upon us. In his opinion, it began with the Industrial Revolution of the late-eighteenth century and can be called the Urbanocene. So, what can scaling laws tell us about this new period in human history?

Well, in biology, the pace of life slows down as size increases. For instance, an elephant metabolizes energy much more slowly than a mouse and also lives for a much longer time. In cities, however, life appears to accelerate with size.

Scaling reveals universal dynamics that correspond to a company’s size and age.

You just learned how the number and diversity of businesses scales relative to city size. But what about the scaling that occurs within a business itself? How do sales, expenses and profits scale with size?

Actually, there are surprisingly common scaling patterns for all of these metrics. For instance, net income, gross profit, total assets and sales all scale up with incredible regularity relative to company size as measured by the number of employees.

Since the Industrial Revolution, the world has witnessed a population explosion, raising questions about sustainability.

You’ve learned a number of rules of scale and how they correspond to all manner of circumstances. But what do these laws mean for human life in general?

Well, they can tell us a great deal about the human population. For instance, since the Industrial Revolution, the world’s population has been growing at an incredible rate. This boom has marked an unforeseen shift since, for 2 million years, the human population had been growing at a steady, albeit much slower, rate.

It’s unlikely that the earth can sustain such rapidly accelerating population and economic growth.

So, the human population exploded with the Industrial Revolution and has been increasing exponentially ever since. People have been warning about the impacts this sustained growth will have and it’s becoming increasingly clear that such growth is straining the relationship between human society and nature.

This begs the question: Can we sustain a global population of over 10 billion and continue increasing levels of consumption without destroying the biosphere?

Want to see all full key ideas from Scale?

Key ideas in Scale

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

What is Scale about?

Scale (2017) is a glimpse into the hidden and fascinating world of the mathematical relationships that tie the world together. The blinks describe how such laws connect everything from microscopic organisms to international metropolises, and what they can tell us about the behavior of complex systems.

Best quote from Scale

Godzilla could not exist. Still, scaling laws allow a few calculations: Godzilla would pee some 20,000 liters of urine per day and poop three tons of feces.

—Geoffrey West

Who should read Scale?

Physicists, biologists, mathematicians and economists
City planners, company owners and innovators
Environmentalists and anyone interested in sustainable development

About the Author

Geoffrey West is a theoretical physicist whose interests range from the fundamental questions of physics to biology and global sustainability. He is a distinguished professor at the Santa Fe Institute and a visiting professor at Oxford University, Imperial College and Nanyang Technical University in Singapore. He was listed on Time magazine’s 2006 list of the “100 Most Influential People In the World.”

Categories with Scale

Science Economics Nature & the Environment

Books like Scale

Life at the Speed of Light

J. Craig Venter

From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life

The Science of Synchronicity and How Your Choices Shape Your World

The Human Journey from Living in Trees to Understanding the Cosmos

On the Origins of Life, Meaning and the Universe Itself

18 min

4.1

The Rule of Logistics

Jesse LeCavalier

Walmart and the Architecture of Fulfillment

23 min

4.4

Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess

Caroline Leaf

5 Simple, Scientifically Proven Steps to Reduce Anxiety, Stress, and Toxic Thinking

The Paradox of Choice

A Clear Guide to Complexity Theory

Seven Ways to Unlock Your Heart and Manifest Happiness

25 min

4.5

Impromptu

Reid Hoffman with GPT-4

Amplifying Our Humanity Through AI

17 min

4.3

The Tools

Phil Stutz & Barry Michels

5 Tools to Help You Find Courage, Creativity, and Willpower--and Inspire You to Live Life in Forward Motion

16 min

4.4

The Beginning of Infinity

David Deutsch

Explanations That Transform the World

The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

18 min

4.5

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Stephen R. Covey

Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

Fortune Favors the Brave

18 min

4.3

How to Talk to Anyone

Leil Lowndes

92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships

25 min

4.2

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman

Intuition or deliberation? Where you can (and can't) trust your brain

Your Financial Freedom Playbook

15 min

4.1

Be Your Future Self Now

Dr. Benjamin Hardy

The Science of Intentional Transformation

Six Steps to Unlock Your True Motivation, Harness Your Willpower, and Get Out of Your Own Way

The Facts and the Solutions

One of the most important philosophical texts ever written

Resisting the Attention Economy

19 min

4.4

The Practice of Groundedness

Brad Stulberg

A Transformative Path to Success That Feeds – Not Crushes – Your Soul

23 min

4.6

The Longevity Project

Howard S. Friedman and Leslie R. Martin

Surprising Discoveries for Health and Long Life from the Landmark Eight-Decade Study

The history and core principles of the Eastern philosophy of Zen

23 min

4.5

Million Dollar Habits

Brian Tracy

Proven Power Practices to Double and Triple Your Income

A Violent Satire on Modern Capitalism and Corporate Greed

Effective Discipline for Children 2-12

A Handbook for Living

18 min

4.6

Stealing Fire

Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal

How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work

Seven Ways to Spark Your Creative Spirit

A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece

The Art of Manifesting

Carolyn Boyes

Tap into the power of the universe to live your best life

17 min

4.4

The Greatness Mindset

Lewis Howes

Unlock the Power of Your Mind and Live Your Best Life Today

Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious

31 min

4.0

Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant

Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter

Guide to Financial Freedom

Make the Vital Change That Will Level Up Your Business

Detox Your Mind for Clearer Thinking, Deeper Relationships, and Lasting Happiness

A Brief History of Humankind

27 min

4.4

Architects of Intelligence

Martin Ford

The truth about AI from the people building it

25 min

4.3

The Dawn of Everything

David Graeber & David Wengrow

A New History of Humanity

24 min

4.1

The Psychology of Money

Morgan Housel

Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness

Transforming Your Life One Night At A Time

Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics

32 min

4.5

The Uninhabitable Earth

David Wallace-Wells

A Story of the Future

32 min

4.6

The Power of Awakening

Wayne W. Dyer

Mindfulness Practices and Spiritual Tools to Transform Your Life

25 min

4.8

People ❤️ Blinkist

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.