Evolution By Natural Selection | Brand, Business & The Biological System

Why do some ideas win while others lose?

“Evolution by natural selection was once called “the greatest idea anyone ever had.” In the 19th century, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace simultaneous realized that species evolve through random mutation and differential survival rates. If we call human intervention in animal-breeding an example of “artificial selection,” we can call Mother Nature deciding the success or failure of a particular mutation “natural selection.” Those best suited for survival tend to be preserved. But of course, conditions change.” Shane Parish, Farnam Street

When I think about evolution by natural selection as it relates to business and brand things, it makes more sense for me to think about it from a micro perspective as opposed to a macro perspective. It is fairly obvious that natural selection will take place at the macro level, the most effective product or brand at attracting and retaining customers will survive and the rest will not. Though, I do not think that this is as obvious from the inside as it is from the outside, that is to say, it is not as obvious to understand the natural selection of the ideas, thoughts, and insights that catalyze the external behaviors and actions of an organization.

The Natural Selection Of Ideas

In his book Principles, Ray Dalio talks about the importance of radical transparency, and how it allows for the best ideas to win. This is exactly what I mean when I say ‘micro perspective’, I am talking about the small details that allow for the macro events to take place, the initial conditions that underpin big wins and the big losses.

Within the context of brand and businesses I have observed that this largely comes in two forms. Listening to your customers and rapidly stress testing ideas, these two things of course must happen in unison. The simple heuristic? listen deeply to the people who you want to buy your product, make something for them, repeat. Although, this methodology is not enough in and of itself, the internal culture of the organization must also be open to this way of life, in fact, it must be expected and tracked.

Listening

Listening does not just happen with your ears, it happens with your eyes, it happens with your eyes and your intuition. A slight smirk here or a subtle wince there could make or break your relationship with a customer, as the negligence of such a subtle nuance could allow you to ignorantly proceed in the direction of idea, that is bound to be weeded out of existence.

Testing

Testing in my mind is akin to refinement, our maps of the world are far from accurate. My version of reality is much different from yours, and your version of reality is much different than the person you love most. After all, the world and parenthetically, universe is a completely random and chaotic place. Add to that the fact that we tend to color the small semblance of empirical truth with our cognitive biases, and testing ideas that you gather from listening is not only useful, it is essential and must be done often.

How Ideas Win In The Natural Selection Of The Market

Listen to your customers at the level of a lover. Meaning that you should know them so well that a slight change in tone, body language or nuanced glare should give you insight into their emotional state. But, that cannot be trusted in and of it self, as the market or the TAM is like having a mini multiverse of lovers. So, you must test and test in order to bring a higher resolution to your insights gathered from listening that can be translated into some semblance across the differing realities of many people.

The Inverse

The opposite of this of course is how ideas lose. They may be able to manipulate the market for a while, but eventually the laws of the universe come to impart mathematical justice.