Power of compounding

The word compounding likely brings up images of financial growth — the patient magic of interest building on interest. But what if this powerful principle wasn’t just about wealth? What if this applied to something far more personal — 

like skills, ideas, vision, and momentum? 

In a world obsessed with instant results and overnight virality, there's a force at play: One that doesn’t spike — it builds. It compounds not in your wallet, but in your mind, skillset, and impact. In AI and in life, some of the most extraordinary things aren’t born in noise. They’re born in focus, in boredom, in the unseen effort no one cares for. 

Until suddenly, they can’t stop talking about the new hype. 

And in this world of clickbait and shallow clones, maybe that’s what we’re all really craving:  Work that matters. Growth that sticks. Results that compound. 

This is the compounding that builds not just tools — but trust. 

In the end, what stays matters or what matters stays.

Before ChatGPT rewrote the internet’s user experience… Before students stopped Googling and started prompting… Before CEOs asked “How can we GPT-ify this?” — there were years of quiet, rigorous work. OpenAI was never just building a chatbot. 

They were building a foundation — a scalable, safety-first path to general intelligence. While the world chased metrics and launch parties, they chased alignment. 

No product launch for years. No flashy UI. 

Just pure R&D. Safety papers. 

Reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF). 

Training infrastructure so complex, they co-built one of the world’s fastest AI clusters. 

And most of all — staying power. 

Even the most patient, foundational work can’t prevent seismic challenges. 

ChatGPT reportedly suffered issues like a silent "memory implosion," risking years of user context and trust. Sounds like just a bug—

but it was almost breakdown of a core promise: reliable long-term memory. 

It highlighted how difficult it is to maintain coherence at scale, especially after backend changes. While others rushed to replicate AI success, OpenAI built slowly and deliberately, solving tough problems every day, probably others hadn’t yet faced. 

That deep, steady progress—not just speed or polish—earned lasting trust. 

True breakthroughs are forged through resilience.

Hugging Face didn’t start as an AI powerhouse—it began as a chatbot startup. 

The real breakthrough came when they pivoted to building tools for model sharing, betting on open collaboration before it was mainstream. 

For five years, they focused quietly on infrastructure and community—no flashy demos, just steady, unglamorous work. Imagine the quiet persistence required, building infrastructure and fostering a community for a future that wasn't yet clear to everyone. While others chased trends, they built utility. 

They weren't immune to the pressures of the startup world; they simply chose to compound their efforts on a different kind of asset: utility and community.

Today, Hugging Face is foundational to the AI world. 

💡 Lesson: Consistent, patient investment in real developer needs outlasts hype. 

Quiet utility compounds—if you stay long enough to see it.

Anthropic didn’t sprint into the spotlight. While the rest of the AI world was busy chasing headlines and shipping demos at breakneck speed, they chose monk mode—opting for quiet, intense focus on AI safety and alignment. No flashy launches, just a lot of whiteboard time and possibly existential debates over lunch. 

They resisted the temptation to ride the hype wave, instead publishing thoughtful research, building internal infrastructure, and grappling with the abstract (and very real) challenges of advanced AI. When Claude finally debuted, it wasn’t just another chatbot—it was a product of years of principled work, designed more like a carefully raised digital adult than a rushed-out algorithm. 

💡 Lesson: It’s not just finance that compounds - it works for trust, reputation, and technical depth—especially if you’re willing to take the slow, uphill path while others are chasing the shortcuts.

Maybe, you are - 

Switching from legacy tech. 

Trying to break into AI or data… while everyone else looks like they’re already there. 

or, recently laid off.

Others are billing €60+/hour. 

You’re reading blog posts on your lunch break or debugging in a café with cold coffee. And yeah, it feels like you’re jogging in place while the race speeds ahead. 

You’re not wasting time — 

you’re compounding it — if you follow these principles:

🧠 Focus on habits, not hype 

Don’t chase hype — build habits. 30 minutes a day > one caffeine-fueled weekend of burnout. 

📚 Stick with structured learning

Finish that course. Then the next. The tools will keep evolving — 

but your foundation will hold. 

✍️ Document your journey. 

Write what you learn. Push code. Talk to rubber ducks. (Hugging Face didn’t go viral — they just showed up. Consistently.) 

🛠️ Solve actual problems. 

Not just “Titanic prediction.” Fix that broken team dashboard. Build a tool your neighbor could use. 

🔎 Follow builders, not brand deals. 

Less “Top 10 AI tools this week!” — more “Here’s what I built and learned.” 

🌐 Stay updated, but don’t drown. 

Skim headlines. Pick one newsletter. Bookmark the rest for Sunday. 

👀 Stay visible, not viral. 

You don’t need 10k likes. You need 6 - 8 solid months of progress.

🌱 Compounding doesn’t look cool in the beginning. 

It looks like doubt, solitude, and 2-star stack overflow threads. 

But five years later? 

You’re not playing catch-up. 

You’re the one they’re trying to catch.