WTF did Linus Mean at 1:30:36 on the WAN Show on TurboQuant?

Linus, explaining why converting vectors from Cartesian (X,Y) to Polar (Angle, Distance) saves memory in Google's TurboQuant:

"Instead of storing all of this, we just store how you get there... that's almost like the end-to-end compression... obvious if you think about it kind of like moment from Silicon Valley."

What was he trying to say when he was talking about "[storing] how to get there" (and also end-to-end-compression??). Am I missing something here or is this just total BS?