For most people the word exponential is vastly underrated. It started in 1965 when Gordon Moore predicted the number of transistors would double every so many months. But so did the speed at which CPUs run, the sizes of memories and disks, and many more aspects of development.
One person who understands this like nobody else is Elon Musk: his companies actually combine several exponential strategies to create effective manufacturing, management and marketing strategies that actually cooperate to make over exponential development. So instead of doubling every X time, they can triple or quadruple their income.