The cumulative advantage process is the abstract mechanism that underlies everything this framework is trying to engineer. It describes how, in complex systems, initial conditions get amplified rather than averaged out; how small early differences become enormous long-term differences; and why the outcome distribution in most markets looks like a power law rather than a bell curve. The loop has two components: **Initial advantage**: a first signal that tips the system in one direction. In markets, this is a meaning that connects with enough users early to generate visible adoption; enough that the next wave of users perceives the product as popular, and therefore probably good. **Preferential attachment**: the mechanism by which the initial advantage compounds. New users go where existing users are. Coverage goes to products that already have coverage. Credibility accumulates to products that already have credibility. The system amplifies whatever got the initial signal, regardless of whether that product is functionally superior. The cumulative advantage process explains why continuous improvement is not a reliable path to growth: it assumes the system rewards quality, when the system actually rewards position. It explains why the least deserving can win: position is determined by initial advantage, which can happen by chance. And it explains why the goal of the framework is the initial advantage rather than the best product: get the initial advantage, and the system does the rest. The entire Meaning Flywheel is an attempt to engineer the initial advantage deliberately, and then leverage the cumulative advantage process to compound it.