Was thinking about evolution and startups tonight. I was think about how hard it is for established, profitable companies to innovate, even when their old profits model is being eaten by new competition. At some point, the crotchety companies WERE the "disruptors."
Take Dunkleosteus. This armor played fish was at the evolutionary Pinnacle of the late Devonian period—a time when the only life on this planet was in the ocean. This thing could bite through a great white shark like cheese crackers. 
But Dunkleosteus couldn't bite its way out of a literal sea change: the Hangenberg (extinction) event.
It was so perfect, so good at its job. But primitive sharks got a foothold here and bony fish took a foothold there and by the time the ocean calmed down: placoderms were done.
It was so perfect, so good at its job. But primitive sharks got a foothold here and bony fish took a foothold there and by the time the ocean calmed down: placoderms were done.
Similar thing is thought to have happened to dolphin-like ichthyosaurs, only without an extinction event giving their competition an edge. They were perfect at their jobs—even bore live young and had blubber! But plesiosaurs and mosasaurs out competed them slowly over time.
When corvids landed on the scene, they evolved rapidly to fill new niches. You can see this in how quickly the birds in the Galapagos Islands splintered into different families occupying different niches.
When there is a resource to exploit, pressures favor differences in generations. Favor rapid evolution over conformity.
For old, established models, bound to a certain specific body type instead of gifted with a general one that can flex into different niches, it is a problem.
For old, established models, bound to a certain specific body type instead of gifted with a general one that can flex into different niches, it is a problem.
Been thinking about the companies I've worked for, the startups and the monoliths. The established companies all have the same evolutionary pattern: got good at the right thing at the right time. Got big. Crowded out the competition.
These big companies specialized so much, they struggle with changing paradigms: A/B testing tiny tweaks instead of making big bets. Maximizing what they have. The current model still works. Meanwhile, those new weird fish keep swimming, ready for their chance.
There are businesses that are like alligators and cockroaches: nothing will ever kill them because there is no better model and they are too robust (well, short of humans, I guess). These are like fertilizer companies. Phosphates and compost. Hard to disrupt that. Optimize, sure.
But most companies are more like the many fishlike animals that have existed over the eons: looking for better ways of doing the same things, replacing perfection with new perfection, only to be replaced in turn by generalists seeking perfection as the ecosystem changes.
Thanks for listening to me ramble.
Everything in this world repeats itself. If you look far enough in the past, you can see the future. This is something I believe.
