---
slug: "InformationGrowth"
name: "InformationGrowth"
type: "Strategy"
layer: "Mind"
ref: "InformationGrowth#9a86"
sema_id: "sema:InformationGrowth#mh:SHA-256:9a86182b8561d0eada5a28b0ceb30fa00500e725d050f760805b8f0da37125de"
tags: ["Mind","Strategy"]
updated: 2026-11-11
mindscape: "origin-of-risk"
index_url: https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/index.json
url: https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/InformationGrowth/
related: ["AnthropomorphicRiskBias","ExplosiveNoise","InformationDividend","ShapeMassInformation","StrategicIntermediateState"]
---

# InformationGrowth

Adding new information that has value in its own right, even when exploiting it deforms or abandons the current shape

Layer: Mind · Category: Strategy

## Mechanism

Instead of using information only to restore a target shape, the organisation takes in and generates new information whose value lies in what it makes possible: a new direction, a manoeuvre, an innovation, an option that was not planned. Exploiting such information usually means changing shape, at a cost, as a fighter pilot changes course under attack or a shopper diverts on seeing cheap oranges. Producing a variety of valuable alternative shapes, as immune systems and sexual reproduction do, is part of this ingredient. It is one of three ingredients of organisation growth, next to control of shape and addition of mass, and it is the one human risk management most often neglects.

## Invariants

- The information is valued for itself, not only as a correction toward an existing target
- Exploiting it changes shape, and changing shape has a cost
- Useful new shapes are not random: they carry value and information of their own

## Preconditions

- Shape can be changed at a cost lower than the value of the information it exploits

## Failure modes

- Filtering out valuable information as noise because it does not serve the current shape
- Overestimating the cost of changing shape because earlier decisions would have to be revised (sunk cost)
- Generating variety at random rather than from a stock of valuable alternative shapes

## Builds on

—

## Used by

- [AnthropomorphicRiskBias](https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/AnthropomorphicRiskBias.md) (Mind; References)
- [ExplosiveNoise](https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/ExplosiveNoise.md) (Mind; References)
- [InformationDividend](https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/InformationDividend.md) (Mind; References)
- [ShapeMassInformation](https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/ShapeMassInformation.md) (Mind; References)
- [StrategicIntermediateState](https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/StrategicIntermediateState.md) (Mind; References)

## Identity

- Sema ID: `sema:InformationGrowth#mh:SHA-256:9a86182b8561d0eada5a28b0ceb30fa00500e725d050f760805b8f0da37125de`
- Ref: `InformationGrowth#9a86`

## Links

- [Pattern page](https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/InformationGrowth/)
- [View in the interactive graph](https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/#InformationGrowth)
- [JSON](https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/InformationGrowth.json)
- [Index of all patterns](https://mindscape.pages.dev/origin-of-risk/index.json)