What it actually costs to be the only one in the room — and what it returns to everyone who follows.
Being first is expensive. The costs are rarely itemized: the extra proof required, the absence of precedent, the loneliness of a room with no one who has done this before.
The return, though, is generational. A precedent, once set, is free to use.
Every first pays a tax the second one never sees.
This is an accounting of both.
