There are many learning curves interacting continually and coming into being and disappearing. My regular conflict with those who talk about learning is the narrow interpretations and limited mechanistic processes they attach to it. This last point is, I think, a key one overlooked by Michael. The beginning has to do with individual, company and cultural forces that create a particular model. Then action takes over and much of the model is violated, forgotten and otherwise becomes a minor factor.
Incremental change does continually build on the platform provided by what went before.
And each change creates new rigidities in the physical and linguistic interaction of elements. And for those who are still with us, I'm finally drawn reluctantly into the capitalist growth conversation. The capitalist model says, take your money where the return on investment is. It is somewhere between impossible and very difficult to find any serious economic writing about it. One of the ignored features of the tragedy of the commons is that, when the land is free, then the users attempt to grow to get the greatest possible share of it without concern for balance, usefulness or future costs.