The upward part of an S-curve is a wild and wonderful place to be.

"We're geniuses! And we can have massive success without having to compromise our values."

But of course it's less that you're a genius and more that you're on the upswing of an S-curve.

if your company is riding a powerful S-curve, almost no matter how much you mess it up, it still keeps growing.

Then at some point, you pass the inflection point to the top part of the S-curve.

The S-curve still has momentum, but in a way that increasingly erodes your soul.^{[je][jf][jg][jh]}

Once the S-curve tapers, it was time to turn up the knob on extraction, since explosive organic growth is now behind you.

If you need to squeeze out growth and the underlying organic growth has slowed, to keep up growth you need to squeeze on extraction more.

As you turn up the knob on extraction, it becomes increasingly aligned against your users, and your own values.