New Year 2024 - A Force Multiplier

Happy New Year 2024

It’s the turn of another year, and an opportune time to wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year 2024, replete with new beginnings, opportunities and everything that you aspire to achieve or become in the coming year. The New Year presents a great opportunity to remember, rekindle and rejuvenate our connections, wishing each other more awesomeness in the year ahead.

But, don’t we do the same at every major festival?

So, what is so special about the New Year?

What’s So Special About A New Year?

There are several reasons why the New Year stands out from other occasions.

Firstly, it is because the New Year is fairly universal. Even though there are many different dates on which various communities, religions and cultures mark a New Year, this annual cut-off is followed universally. Apart from the New Year, almost all other holidays (or days of significance) are specific to a nation or to a religion. Browse through the holiday list in your city, state or country, and you will realize that this is true!

The second rationale is that the New Year also represents a reset button. It is time when we reflect on the year gone by, and cull out tons of Top 10 lists from the previous year. More importantly, we plan ahead, and make New Years Resolutions, each time with a resolve to not break them!

Yet, we often find ourselves faltering on these resolutions within the first month itself. So, what makes 2024 any different, and why do I believe that we will leap ahead in 2024?

Related Read: Check out the Year In Review series in 2020 consisting of 20 insightful articles

Why Will We Leap Ahead In 2024?

Well, the obvious answer lies in the pun on leap, with 2024 being a leap year! The pun apart, the year does start with an unfair advantage of an additional day on the calendar.

But, that is at best, a minor advantage.

So, why have I claimed that 2024 will be a force multiplier?

Why Is 2024 A Force Multiplier?

Those who know me well enough, can predict what is coming. If I am not playing on words (which I already did), I am most likely playing with numbers.

So, let us dive into the mathematics of 2024 and it’s relation with ’23 – the previous year. Let us start with one of the first things that we would want to do with a number like 2024 – factorize!

If you factorize 2024, you get 2*2*2*11*23 or 88 times 23, i.e. the previous year.

So, in other words, 2024 is an 88 times force multiplier of the previous year ’23. For whatever it is worth, 88 is associated with good fortune, abundance and all things super positive in various cultures. Additionally, in line with the word and number play, if we play on shapes, with a sleight of hand, 88 can look like two symbols of infinity too.

Hmm…so that’s what inspired the feature image!

In effect, 2024 will give us exponential returns of whatever we have sown in ’23.

At this stage, you may thinking on one of these lines:

The Believers – Why didn’t you tell me this earlier? I would have done so much more in ’23!
The Rationalists – It’s just a bunch of numbers, which will divide over each other at fairly regular intervals. So, what’s the big deal?

What is the big deal about 2024?

So, here is the big deal.

This is not a very common occurrence, where a four digit year is divisible by it’s two digit predecessor – eg. 2024 divisible by 23 and hence the new year becomes a multiplier of the previous year.

This only occurs ‘regularly’ in two cases –
(a) the second year of the century, where this phenomenon always occurs (eg. 2002 divisible by 01), which happens once every 100 years
(b) the the fourth year of the century, where this phenomenon occurs every 300 years (eg. 2304, 2004 and 1704 divisible by 03).

Now, can you guess when this force multiplier phenomenon occurred the last time prior to 2024, except for the above mentioned cases?

Hint 1: It has not happened so far in the 21st century!

Hint 2: It did not happen even once in the 1900’s

Hint 3: It did not happen even once in the 1800’s

Ok, I am running out of hints, so here it goes…

The last time that this happened was in the year 1782 which was a force multiplier of its predecessor ’81 by 22 times (22*81=1782), and this time we are getting 4 times the force multiplier of 88 (23*88=2024), and that too after a gap of 242 years in 2024!

In case you are thinking that ’23 is a small number, and this would happen regularly, think again!

This is the first and only time in 4000 years since 24 AD that this multiplying force will present itself at the cusp of the 23rd and 24th years of any century! The next time that this happens will be in the year 4324 AD, when it will be the 188th force multiplier of it’s predecessor, ’23 (23*188=4324).

I am quite sure, we won’t be around to continue this conversation in the year 4324 AD!

When Will This Happen Again?

So, if this force multiplying event has occurred after 242 years, when will it be happening again?

The good news is that it will happen once again in six years time, when 2030 is the 70th multiple of ’29.

Given all that we have gone through, I am sure you realize that two force multipliers within a span of six years is a rare and opportune slice of history, that encodes a special message for us.

At this stage, both the Optimists and the Rationalists, would have converged to the golden question – What does this mean for me, and what can I do to leverage this golden opportunity?

What Does This Force Multiplier New Year Mean For Me?

It presents us with a never before, and never after, chance to reset the trajectory of our lives, starting right now!

The fact that there are two force multipliers in close proximity only reinforces the duality of the infinite possibilities embedded in the 88 force multiplier as we transition from ’23 to 2024.

We only have to look around ourselves to realize that the global events that are unfolding around us also support this hypothesis. This is manifested in sweeping changes across all aspects that touch our lives – major geopolitical changes, elections in several major countries likely in 2024 (India, USA, European Union Parliament, United Kingdom and more), the rise and rise of AI and it’s impact on business and humanity.

Irrespective of your nationality and profession, it is quite likely that the current spate of events yield circumstances (opportunities or threats) that can re-define the way you live and work, for the next several years, or indeed, for the rest of your lives.

In Times Of Change

I am no expert on global affairs, but many commentators are pointing out the opportunities of a reset in the global world order by 2030 – our next force multiplier year.

However, I do know that the current set of developments in the world of AI are resulting in disruptions and innovations in the way we work and live, right now! I have been adopting AI, ML and NLP in various use cases at work since the middle of the last decade, and the sweeping opportunities presented in this domain have never got me so excited.

In a rather poetic manner, a play on the number 2024 finds a linkage with a field like AI that is predicated on finding patterns within numbers!

The good news is that this time a human was able to find this force multiplying pattern, while queries to some of the LLM models only received hallucinatory responses!

Where Can I Find My Force Multipliers?

In a nutshell, this year (or mini-era over the next six years), is all about finding and applying the right force multipliers.

Disruptive forces are at work, across almost all aspects of the way we work and live, and how we are organized as a global community. The magnitude and parallelism of these events may appear threatening, or overwhelming.

However, risks and opportunities are two sides of the same coin.

If the fear of risk grips and paralyzes you, then the sliver of hope must be compounded with the knowledge of the Force Multiplier. Even a small step can lead to an exponential butterfly effect in such times!

We just need to change our perception of the world around us, and take that one small step that can be a giant leap….if not for mankind, at least for you!

How about taking the first step to leaping ahead in 2024 by sharing this article with your own thoughts with your community and people that you care about?

May the Force Be With You!

Rajiv Maheshwari - From The Experts Mouth — Rajiv Maheshwari

About The Author

Rajiv Maheshwari is a business and start-up advisor, and the co-founder of From The Experts Mouth. He is a management professional with over 25 years of experience, and worked as CEO for a decade, and in leadership roles with NYSE listed companies such as Accenture and WNS.

He is a Chartered Accountant and MBA (Director’s Merit List from IIM Bangalore) and an autodidact, who is on the path of self-directed life long learning and sharing. He is a thought leader, author and keynote speaker and has developed several frameworks to bridge the gap between academia and industry.