Definition
Plain language
Something that doesn't get used up when more people use it — like a song everyone can hear at once.
As stated in the literature
Property of a non-rival resource: consumption by one party does not reduce availability to others, so a knowledge commons degrades through pollution of trust rather than depletion.
Also called: non-subtractability, non-rival
Why it matters: It explains why shared knowledge cannot be overgrazed the way a pasture can — the way it degrades instead is by filling with claims nobody can rely on.
For example, if you hum a tune to a hundred people, none of them has less of it than the first person you hummed it to.
Heard on the show
“Knowledge is non-subtractable.”Episode 260 — One Line of Lean Faked 34 Proofs, and 99 Agents Copied It