Christopher Butler is a graphic designer with over twenty years of experience in interactive design, product design, design leadership, training, and business and marketing strategy. He currently serves as Chief Design Officer at both Newfangled and Magnolia. He regularly shares his insights and experiences on his website.

Chris Butler believes we’re chasing the wrong goals. He argues that we often celebrate innovation as something sudden and dramatic—a breakthrough or a single genius idea that changes everything overnight. We’re drawn to stories of bold risk-takers who bet everything on one big idea. But in reality, he notes, those kinds of gambles rarely succeed.

Instead, he suggests that real progress comes from small, smart ideas accumulated over time—like compound interest—rather than chasing a single massive win. Steady, consistent effort, he says, usually outperforms high-risk, all-or-nothing thinking.

"What history records as 'big ideas' were usually the visible peaks of mountains built from countless smaller insights, most attributed to others or lost to history entirely. When we romanticize the peak, we terraform the mountain with impatience in defiance of reality."

This advice reminds me of something a longtime friend has said for years: “Slow and steady wins the race.”

ESSAY: The Compound Interest of Small Ideas