Quantity is Quality
Volume is often the process that produces excellence: repeated attempts create opportunities to learn, adjust, and select stronger work. Quality is not guaranteed by quantity, but it is difficult to discover without enough trials.
A photography class was split in two: one group had to submit a single excellent photograph; the other earned its grade by producing as many as 100. The best photographs came from the group rewarded for quantity.
E1 R1More attempts create more ways to improve
Trying to make one perfect photograph concentrates effort on prediction: you must decide what excellence looks like before you have accumulated much experience. Producing repeatedly creates a different system. Each attempt exercises the craft, exposes another mistake, and supplies another result to compare. More output also creates a larger pool from which exceptional work can emerge. This is the practical logic behind the Equal-Odds Rule: you do not need every attempt to become better; you need enough attempts for learning and selection to operate.
E1 R1Where it shows up
The hundred-photo class
Creative output across fields
The episode’s research notes connect the claim to Dean Simonton’s work on creativity across science, literature, music, chess, film, politics, and military activity: the proposed pattern is not confined to photography, but concerns the relationship between productive volume and notable outcomes.
R1A quota can reward the wrong thing
Quantity helps only when the attempts remain genuine attempts at the craft. As the episode itself warns, Goodhart’s Law can take over: once a number becomes the target, students may satisfy it with random snapshots rather than learning. Volume creates quality through practice, feedback, and selection—not through counting alone.
E1Replace one masterpiece with a batch
Episodes that teach this
- If You're Failing You're Growing - Quantity = Quality - Future IQ start here 8,405 views