META·SUITE ← all nine
overview / skills / meta-compound
Skill 05 · keep axis

meta-compound

The compounding map: how each unit of work makes the next one easier — and where to invest first.

EACH PASS COSTS LESS · DELIVERS MORE pass 1 pass 2 pass 3 pass 4 pass 5 effort output WHAT'S HAPPENING 1 · Each pass, the effort it takes (gold) gets smaller. 2 · Meanwhile the output it delivers (green) gets bigger. 3 · That widening gap is the compounding — invest where it's largest. An asset pays down future cost; a one-off doesn't. The map tells the two apart.
FIG — effort per pass falls as output rises; that gap is the compounding
// what it does

Some work is a cost you pay once and forget. Other work is an asset — it makes everything after it cheaper. meta-compound tells the two apart and maps where the leverage is, so you invest in the passes that pay you back.

It draws the dependency graph of your effort: which reusable pieces, built now, collapse the cost of the next ten tasks — and which "quick wins" quietly cost you forever.

// the map
assets

Work that pays down future cost — templates, tools, learned context.

leverage

The one investment that unlocks the most downstream savings.

order

The sequence to build them in so each one accelerates the next.

// invoke it
/meta-suite:meta-compound <the kind of work you keep repeating>

Returns a compounding map: which assets to build, in what order, and the single highest-leverage first move — so repeated work gets cheaper instead of costing the same every time.

Assets over tasks

Build things that pay back.

Leverage-ranked

First move is obvious.

Names the trap

Flags quiet forever-costs.

It compounds

That's the whole point.

Grounding

The ideas here aren't invented — the skill generalizes established practice into one reusable, task-agnostic move. Below: the prior art it builds on, and the in-repo contract it actually runs on.

Prior art
The flywheel effect — Jim Collins, Good to Great (2001) — consistent pushes in one direction compound into momentum.
Compound interest, as a model for work — each unit leaves the system more capable, so returns accrue instead of decaying into debt.
Kaizen — Masaaki Imai (1986) — improvement through small, captured, repeatable gains rather than one-off heroics.
In this suite
The 11 compounding pillars references/pillars.md around one loop — Frame → Do → Review → Capture → Repeat; Capture is the step that separates compounding work from ordinary work.