Because there are other things that don't count toward the daily limit, e.g. +15 for an accept of your answer, +2 for accepting someone's answer, bounties, etc. I've received over 300 on many days mostly because of accepts. [From the FAQ](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/faq#reputation): > accepted answers and bounty awards are not subject to the daily reputation limit. However note that it was [recently suggested the wording be made more clear][1]. [1]: http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/139962/daily-reputation-limit-and-accepted-answers/