What Should Not Be Scaled?

A very simple question. Yet in a culture where we are, by default, obsessed with scaling, one that needs to be asked.

People who love talking about scaling will say we needn’t face a trade-off between quality and quantity. On the contrary, the argument goes, greater returns to scale will result in higher quality than local efforts where the “unit economics” are inferior.

But if scaling is the opposite of singularity—if scaling is synonymous with generalizable and thus generic—then surely the most important aspects of life, the parts that used to be called “the soul,” cannot be scaled without serious compromise. What do you sacrifice when you scale and when is the sacrifice not worth it?

Just because something is awesome, why assume it should be replicated and shared with the world?