0 saved
8.5K views
You're improving, learning, getting faster, achieving more and getting ahead? No, you're not. Because everyone else is as well.
...Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Si est nihil nisi corpus, summa erunt illa: valitudo, vacuitas doloris, pulchritudo, cetera. Sequitur disserendi ratio cognitioque naturae; Atqui eorum nihil est eius generis, ut sit in fine atque extrerno bonorum. Tollenda est atque extrahenda radicitus. Bestiarum vero nullum iudicium puto. Eam tum adesse, cum dolor omnis absit; Utinam quidem dicerent alium alio beatiorem! Iam ruinas videres. Duo Reges: constructio interrete.
Quos quidem tibi studiose et diligenter tractandos magnopere censeo. Quae similitudo in genere etiam humano apparet. Atque hoc loco similitudines eas, quibus illi uti solent, dissimillimas proferebas. At habetur! Et ego id scilicet nesciebam! Sed ut sit, etiamne post mortem coletur? Quo plebiscito decreta a senatu est consuli quaestio Cn. An ea, quae per vinitorem antea consequebatur, per se ipsa curabit? Hoc est non modo cor non habere, sed ne palatum quidem.
Atqui reperies, inquit, in hoc quidem pertinacem; Beatus autem esse in maximarum rerum timore nemo potest. Ut in geometria, prima si dederis, danda sunt omnia. Pisone in eo gymnasio, quod Ptolomaeum vocatur, unaque nobiscum Q. Haec para/doca illi, nos admirabilia dicamus. Quae similitudo in genere etiam humano apparet. Frater et T. Ea, quae dialectici nunc tradunt et docent, nonne ab illis instituta sunt aut inventa sunt? Sed nonne merninisti licere mihi ista probare, quae sunt a te dicta?
- Research your competition
You cannot become better than your competitor if you are not aware of their st ...
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Et quod est munus, quod opus sapientiae? Quarum cum una sit, qua mores conformari putantur, differo eam partem, quae quasi stirps ets huius quaestionis. Quid, de quo nulla dissensio est? Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Cum ageremus, inquit, vitae beatum et eundem supremum diem, scribebamus haec. Utinam quidem dicerent alium alio beatiorem! Iam ruinas videres. Sic, et quidem diligentius saepiusque ista loquemur inter nos agemusque communiter. Me igitur ipsum ames oportet, non mea, si veri amici futuri sumus.
Primum cur ista res digna odio est, nisi quod est turpis? Nulla profecto est, quin suam vim retineat a primo ad extremum. Quando enim Socrates, qui parens philosophiae iure dici potest, quicquam tale fecit? Stuprata per vim Lucretia a regis filio testata civis se ipsa interemit. Quae hic rei publicae vulnera inponebat, eadem ille sanabat. Cur id non ita fit? Aliud igitur esse censet gaudere, aliud non dolere.
Huius, Lyco, oratione locuples, rebus ipsis ielunior. Sed ut iis bonis erigimur, quae expectamus, sic laetamur iis, quae recordamur. Vos autem cum perspicuis dubia debeatis illustrare, dubiis perspicua conamini tollere. Et quidem Arcesilas tuus, etsi fuit in disserendo pertinacior, tamen noster fuit; Quid ergo aliud intellegetur nisi uti ne quae pars naturae neglegatur? Sic enim censent, oportunitatis esse beate vivere. Huius ego nunc auctoritatem sequens idem faciam. Quippe: habes enim a rhetoribus;
Being aware of the Red Queen Effect is not enough to guarantee success. Once you have come up with a concept that is foreign to your competition, you need to make sure you can move the new product or service past the idea phase, which usually requires capital, know-how, and the willingness to take risks.
The evolutionary ‘arms race’.
In the Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins describes the “unequal cost of failure” in the evolutionary ‘arms race’. He describes the life/dinner principle captured in Aesop’s fables: “The rabbit runs faster than the fox, because the rabbit is running for his life while the fox is only running for his dinner.” There is a linked push to evolve and improve, with better adaptation in one species driving the other to make its own ‘leap forward’ to survive.
Buffet and developments in the textile industry.
The Farnam St Blog outlines the Red Queen Effect in some detail and includes the story of Buffett's approach to investing in the textile industry. Buffet wrote:
“Over the years, we had the option of making large capital expenditures in the textile operation that would have allowed us to somewhat reduce variable costs. But the promised benefits from these textile investments were illusory. Many of our competitors, both domestic and foreign, were stepping up to the same kind of expenditures and, once enough companies did so, their reduced costs became the baseline for reduced prices industrywide.
“Viewed individually, each company’s capital investment decision appeared cost-effective and rational; viewed collectively, the decisions neutralized each other and were irrational (just as happens when each person watching a parade decides he can see a little better if he stands on tiptoes). After each round of investment, all the players had more money in the game and returns remained anemic.”
While the Red Queen effect arose from biology, it can be applied to competition and innovation in other domains.
Use the following examples of connected and complementary models to weave the Red Queen effect into your broader latticework of mental models. Alternatively, discover your own connections by exploring the category list above.
Connected models:
- Mutually assured destruction: the Red Queen effect can be seen as a lens to understand the cold war.
- Blue ocean strategy: to consider changing the game rather than running faster.
Complementary models:
- Catalyst: in identifying rapid change opportunities over progressive development.
The name of this concept originated from Lewis Carroll’s famous sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, where Alice observes that she needs to run faster and faster just to stay in the same place; the Red Queen’s reply to Alice’s perplexity is ‘Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!’
Evolutionary biologist Leigh Van Halen proposed the Red Queen hypothesis in 1973 to describe the constant race that co-evolving species engage in order to survive in a constantly changing environment populated with opposing organisms.
My Notes
Oops, That’s Members’ Only!
Fortunately, it only costs US$5/month to Join ModelThinkers and access everything so that you can rapidly discover, learn, and apply the world’s most powerful ideas.
ModelThinkers membership at a glance:
“Yeah, we hate pop ups too. But we wanted to let you know that, with ModelThinkers, we’re making it easier for you to adapt, innovate and create value. We hope you’ll join us and the growing community of ModelThinkers today.”
You Might Also Like:
- Actionable summaries of the world's most powerful ideas.
Subscribe now and download this practical guide to transform your thinking, plus recieve one short, powerful and actionable idea in your inbox each month.