TITLE: Milnor-Wolf result on growth of solvable groups
QUESTION [6 upvotes]: The Milnor-Wolf theorem says that any solvable group has either polynomial or exponential growth. I wonder about the existence of alternative proofs of this fact. I have an impression that the original proof is more brutal and less ideological. If you have a citation or a suggestion of an alternative proof, please post.

REPLY [3 votes]: There seems to be a different proof of a sharper result by our own T. Tao:
http://terrytao.wordpress.com/tag/milnor-wolf-theorem/