The Red Queen Effect
It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.
Lewis Carroll was not only an author but a keen observer of human nature.
In his book Through the Looking Glass, Alice, a young girl, gets schooled by the Red Queen in an important life lesson that many of us would do well to heed.
Alice and the Red Queen were running hand in hand but however fast they went, they never seemed to pass anything.
“I wonder if all the things move along with us?” thought poor puzzled Alice.
The Red Queen sensing her thoughts replies, “It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”
The Red Queen Effect means that we constantly co-evolve with the systems we interact with, so if we’re not doing things differently, we’ll pretty much remain in the same place.
For example, Darwin refers to an evolutionary arms race between different species, particularly predators and prey or parasites and their hosts. In this race, all species must constantly adapt and evolve to survive, as their adversaries are also evolving. The result is that each species must continuously develop new strategies and defenses just to maintain its current position in the ecosystem.
Smarter, Not Harder
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” — Charles Darwin
Species that are more responsive to change can gain a relative advantage over the ones they compete with and increase the odds of survival. In the short run, these small gains don’t make much of a difference, but as time passes the advantages compound.
I witnessed this effect when we were considering capital investments to upgrade our production unit which would have allowed us to reduce variable costs.
Every time we invested in new technology, it promised greater economic return on investments and higher margins.
But over the years, these imagined benefits turned out to be illusory. Many, if not most, of our competitors were stepping up their investments in the same technology as us and once enough companies did so, our collective reduced costs became the new baseline for reduced prices industrywide thus keeping the margins as they were.
Viewed individually, each company appeared to be making cost-effective rational decisions but viewed collectively, the decisions neutralized each other. After each round of investment, all the players had more money in the game and returns remained static.
How can we use this knowledge?
Gaining a competitive advantage in life involves understanding the dynamics of your environment and adapting to those dynamics more effectively than your competitors.
We can leverage the Red Queen effect in our own lives by embracing continuous self-improvement, adaptability, and learning.
Here are some ways to escape the Red Queen Effect in your personal life:
- Lifelong learning: Commit to continuous learning and self-improvement. This could include reading books, taking courses, or revisiting your foundational skills such as learning how to think better and improve your decision-making. Most people stop learning post-college. Don’t be most people.
- Adaptability and Experimentation: Be willing to reassess your goals, beliefs, or habits in the face of new information. Try new approaches, different career paths, adopting new habits, or exploring new interests to discover what works best for you.
- Self-awareness: Cultivate self-awareness by reflecting on your strengths, weaknesses, values, and motivations. Take the time to find out and work on your limiting beliefs. I’ve found meditating and journaling to be the most effective habits in this regard. Upgrade your identity.
- Embrace feedback: When everybody else is averse to criticism, actively seek out feedback from others to gain new insights and perspectives on your actions and decisions. Be open to constructive criticism and use it as a tool for personal growth.
- Goal setting: Set ambitious, but achievable goals for yourself in various areas of your life, such as career, health, relationships, or personal growth. Writing down and defining your goals goes a long way in making it real. Specificity breeds confidence.
- Time management: Make the most of your time by prioritizing tasks, doing proactive or creative work first before reactive work, setting aside time to work on yourself, and minimizing distractions. Time is an invaluable and irreplaceable resource, use it wisely.
- Resilience: Develop your resilience to setbacks and failures. Treat any setback as feedback to learn from and iterate your approach. Mine them for opportunities for growth and self-improvement.
- Consistency: Showing up, actually showing up every day to move that needle even by an inch is grossly underrated. Bias for consistent action compounds non-linearly.
- Patience: Most people play short-term games and look for quick wins. Cultivate patience, all good things take time.
The above-mentioned ways seem simple but collectively lead to non-linear outcomes.
