3. Knowledge grows exponentially.

How much you’re able to learn depends on what you already know. Research finds that the amount of knowledge retained from a text depends on prior knowledge of the topic. This effect can even outweigh general intelligence in some situations. This process has limits, of course, or knowledge would accelerate indefinitely. Still, it’s good to keep in mind because the early phases of learning are often the hardest and can give a misleading impression of future difficulty within a field.