If efficiency gains were the secret go (infinite) growth, then companies would be able to grow their business without growing their workforce, building more factories, warehouses, etc.
They are the "secret". But efficiency gains (from methods, skills, technology) are usually harder to get and implement than scaling gains. Building a new factory is a known factor; investing in a new ecosystem of manufacturing machines, less so, especially if you have to retrain your workforce. But companies absolutely grow their business without using more resources.
Ininite growth isn't possible, but I genuinely believe near-infinite growth is.
That is an overabstracted viewpoint that assumes they just crank up a variable. How do the efficiency gains take place in the first place?
By creating something new that is more efficent. Even if we ignore economies of scale as a source of efficency there is a replacement curve in action which would create growth! A situation where they would immediately scrap the old equipment for the same payload and switch to a new more efficient one is extremely rare.
I don't follow your logic. Just because companies could grow their businesses without increasing their workforce it doesn't mean that they couldn't achieve a higher rate of growth by increasing their workforce.
My point is if it were possible we should see at least some examples of it happening. So far it is an often recited conjecture without any practical proof, so I remain sceptical.
> My point is if it were possible we should see at least some examples of it happening.
We see it all the time? Google's revenue is up last quarter despite redundancies meaning they have a lower headcount. Adding robotics to a car production line can massively increase the productivity of a single factory despite needing less headcount, often allowing other factories to shut.
Something like Intellij or Copilot can make the entire tech workforce more efficient _far_ in excess of what it cost to make.
