For a thing to have direct impact it has to have either big numbers or a compounding curve.

But either is sufficient to mean it is impactful.

Big numbers means it's already impactful.

Compounding curve (as long as the asymptote is still far away) means that it will be big numbers soon.

Humans tend to miss compounding curves: "This is a small number on an absolute basis, I don't need to pay attention to it".

Finding currently-small compounding curves that complement you and nurturing them is a consistent source of alpha.