[nileshtrivedi]

I have had a similar thought. The multiple of 3 seems to be a nice heuristic to track and tame complexity in many fields. Nature of any problem undergoes fundamental changes when the problem size is tripled and our solutions should be reviewed accordingly.

Here is what I mean. Say your startup has only one employee. You come up with certain processes to make it productive. However, when the team size goes to 3, 9, 27, it would be a good idea to review those processes and rules. Those seem like appropriate milestones to me for future planning. Not too short, nor too long.

Another example: Let's say I want to understand a topic like, say, Relativity. I think an effective approach would be to first read a one paragraph summary which barely describes the big picture of it. Once I've done that, I look for an article 3-times as long (say, a page). Next would be an essay which is about 3 pages. 9 pages, 27 pages and so on.

By not taking a big jump, (say a multiple of 10 or more), I make sure that I have a good foundation based on experience to be able to understand the next stage of complexity. And a jump less than a multiple of 3 would tend to be not the most productive.