I'm not coonvinced by the conclusion. The contacts example doesn't show friction leads to growth, it shows absence of friction leads to degrowth. The other way around isn't necessarily true.
I'd argue it doesn't show growth or shrinking. What capacity does remembering strings of numbers "grow"? There's no clear connection to remembering other things, or math skills, or anything but how many numbers you remember.
The author says they still remember these numbers. Maybe they remember fewer and this is shrinking? Seems like a poor example at any rate.
