Startups

Humans are wired for a local, linear world, but the competitive environment now moves on global, exponential curves. Once a technology becomes digital, it can improve rapidly, fall in cost, and spill into adjacent industries.

The technology industry has fundamentally misunderstood network effects by treating them as a uniform, universally positive force that follows exponential mathematical formulas. In reality, network effects more closely resemble the population dynamics of social animals.

The central argument is that the greatest companies do not merely compete within existing markets; they create entirely new categories and position themselves as the “Category King.”