Where does O(2ⁿ) come from? Watch the recursion tree.
Step through fib(n) in the order the calls actually happen. The tree on the left grows; the derivation on the right assembles itself from what you see.
| n | 4 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naive | 9 | 15 | 25 | 67 | 177 |
| Memoized | 7 | 9 | 11 | 15 | 19 |