This essay synthesizes recent findings of the Robinson-Shinkai-Leontief (RSL) model of optimal growth, a miniature two-sector model that has been used as a workhorse in the literature of economic dynamics to demonstrate a variety of optimal outcomes. In terms of a substantive contribution to the subject, the taxonomy that we present elaborates both the importance, and the geometrical shape, of optimal policy correspondences as opposed to functions, a point of view first emphasized in Khan and Mitra (Adv Math Econ 8:349–381, (2006), [28]), Khan and Mitra (Jpn Econ Rev 58(2):191–225, (2007), [30]). Furthermore, our investigation takes an overview of the entire parameter space of the model, and in doing so, addresses several lacunae pertaining to special cases of interest, including the case of an unsustainable technology without discounting. The synthesis also points to the (only) parameter region for which a complete characterization of the optimal policy is still left open.(134 words)