Innovation is found when abundance is exploited and scarcity is conserved.
His most famous example is when settlers of the Western United States were given generous amounts of land, even while the power or energy it took to maintain that land was infinitely small in comparison. As it relates to today, Gilder believes that time is the scarce commodity. While our expectations and our abilities are rising, we are beginning to butt up against the 24-hour day, the need for sleep, and even as it relates to power and energy, the speed of light. Products and services that succeed today will conserve our time, and make our day more productive. On the other hand, Gilder predicts that the abundant commodity of the next decade will be bandwidth even with growing demand for speed, the supply appears to be infinite.