Why do people flock to something? What creates an edge, an advantage, a moat? How do things win, or at least survive, in a highly competitive landscape?
Organisms, people, products, organizations, networks. All are able to overcome competitors and accumulate energy by developing strengths along certain vectors.
Successful things tend to optimize competency on a narrow set of strategies, often a unique and unusual combination of strategies. Here are eighty such strategies, grouped in broad categories, with examples from biology and business.
Accumulation
- Usership: a critical mass of users, network effect. Examples: Phone system, the internet, scaled social networks.
- Completeness: all-in-one tool, one-stop shop. Examples: Swiss army knife, Walmart.
- Aggregation: an environment or marketplace designed for broad participation. Examples: Cities, malls, Amazon, Craigslist.
- Diversification: low-dependency on any one stream of resources. Examples: Conglomerates, omnivores.
- Omnipresence: available everywhere it might be needed, accepted by default. Examples: Visa, Coca-Cola, dandelions.
- Cloning: expands by replicating identical copies of itself. Examples: Aspen groves, franchises, sourdough starters.
Price
- Affordability: comparatively low-cost. Examples: Mass production, fast food, fast fashion.
- Luxury: intentionally high-cost, often labor-intensive, or status symbol. Examples: Veblen goods, supercars, luxury watches.
- Skimming: ingests a large volume of very small transactions or resources. Examples: Credit cards, baleen whales, planktivores.
- Bundling: packaged freely with something desirable. Examples: Microsoft Office, cable channels, seeds in a fruit.
Time
- Heritage: multi-generational legacy. Examples: Religions, old companies.
- Craftsmanship: uses more time, precision, and attention to detail than competitors. Examples: Handmade watches, bespoke tailoring, Leica.
- Organic: natural growth process that cannot be accelerated. Examples: Trees, ecosystems, aged cheeses.
- Endurance: ability to operate continuously over a long period of time. Examples: Marathon runners, nuclear submarines.
Uniqueness
- Specialization: strong competence in a narrow niche. Examples: Trade schools, pandas.
- Versatility: general competence adapted to many tasks. Examples: CPUs, opposable thumbs.
- Hybrid: competence in two distinct areas, or blending of two strengths not usually found together. Examples: Frogs, cronuts, amphibious vehicles, hybrid cars.
- Divergence: creativity, unusualness, differentiation from the norm. Examples: Van Gogh, Picasso, Frank Gehry.
- Authenticity: traceable to its source, especially where counterfeiting is prevalent. Examples: Money, olive oil, art.
- Rarity: naturally limited in quantity, at the edge of the distribution curve. Examples: Beachfront property, Victor Wembanyama.
- Scarcity: artificially limited in quantity. Examples: Collectibles, NFTs.
- Secrecy: made difficult to copy by protecting private knowledge, or combining components in a way that cannot be disentangled. Examples: Magicians, Coca-Cola, trade secrets.
- Irreverence: contrarian, counter-cultural, disregard for tradition. Examples: Richard Branson, South Park.
Offense
- Violence: destroys or consumes the opponent through physical force. Examples: Military attacks, predators.
- Litigation: weakens opponents through legal burden. Examples: Patent trolls, lawsuits, Mickey Mouse.
- Nettlesomeness: causes the opponent to make mistakes. Examples: Magnus Carlsen, terrorism.
- Sabotage: creates weaknesses in the opponent's structure or defenses. Examples: Stuxnet, cutting undersea cables.
- Parasitism: extracts or hijacks resources from a host. Examples: Mosquitos, tapeworm.
- Scavenging: opportunistically ingests dying or weakened prey. Examples: Private equity, vultures.
- Espionage: acquires enemy secrets. Examples: Spies.
- Swarming: concentrated attack from a mass of individually weak agents. Examples: Bees, DDOS attacks, Zerg rush.
- Highest bidder: overpays or outbids competitors to secure exclusivity. Examples: Real Madrid, Softbank, art collectors.
- Chokepoint: controls a passage that competitors or prey must pass through. Examples: Suez Canal, grizzlies at a waterfall.
- Puppeteering: takes over a host's behavior and directs it to serve you. Examples: Cordyceps, toxoplasma.
Defense
- Deterrence: mutually assured destruction, projecting fear of violence or litigation. Examples: Nuclear weapons, trademarks, patents.
- Reliability: reduces maintenance costs, minimizes downtime. Examples: Zippo lighters, Toyota cars.
- Predictability: repeatable process with little deviation to create a consistent product or experience. Examples: Disneyland, Starbucks.
- Unpredictability: creating an element of surprise, confusion, or variability. Examples: Squid ink, smoke screen, Banksy, Lady Gaga.
- Decentralization: redundancy and distributed competency to reduce single points of failure. Examples: Solar power, grassroots movements.
- Security: resistance to theft, confiscation, unwanted access. Examples: Banks, vaults, locks.
- Privacy: protection against unwanted information disclosure. Examples: Encrypted messaging apps, VPNs.
- Durability: physical robustness, resistance to damage, or injury. Examples: LeBron James, cast iron skillets.
- Neutrality: displays long-term non-belligerence, a safe haven. Examples: Switzerland, Red Cross.
- Obscurity: survival by remaining unknown or undetected. Examples: Deep-sea creatures, closed-source software.
- Antifragility: becomes stronger when exposed to stress or usage. Examples: BitTorrent, muscles.
Deception
- Camouflage: ability to blend into the surrounding environment. Examples: Chameleons, stealth aircraft.
- Mimicry: superficially adopts characteristics of another species to trick opponents. Examples: Harmless snakes mimicking venomous ones.
- Decoy: distracts or misleads adversaries. Examples: Chaff, fake security cameras.
- Lure: preys on other organisms by setting attractive traps. Examples: Anglerfish, honeypot.
- Infiltration: gets past defenses without notice. Examples: Trojan horse, malware, smuggling.
Timing
- First-mover: acts first to gain an advantage. Examples: Netflix, Tesla.
- Second-mover: fast-follower, moves quickly to copy the first-mover. Examples: Facebook-Snapchat.
- Last-mover: waits until all opponents have expended energy on failed approaches. Examples: Apple.
Accreditation
- Monopoly: artificial control of a resource or market approved by the governing body. Examples: Patents, regulatory capture.
- Prestige: endorsed by authoritative sources via awards, degrees, or other recognition. Examples: Michelin-starred restaurants, Ivy League graduates.
- Curation: selectiveness, particular ability in choosing and grouping. Examples: Art galleries, HBO, venture capital.
Collaboration
- Union: reduce friction between potential competitors by adopting a common set of rules. Examples: Mergers and acquisitions, United States, European Union.
- Alliance: partnership that enables some benefits of a union while maintaining independence. Examples: Partnerships.
- Emergence: hive mind, wisdom of the crowd. Examples: Ant colonies, beehives, democracy.
- Centralization: single decision-making entity. Examples: Dictatorships.
- Standardization: emergent alignment that reduces friction. Examples: Language, railway gauge, metric system.
- Symbiosis: mutually beneficial dependency between two organisms. Examples: Two-party political system, fig wasp.
- Herding: grouping of many individuals to protect against larger or dangerous competitors. Examples: Trade associations, school of fish.
- Distributed ownership: owned by the community. Examples: REI Co-op, Green Bay Packers.
- Transparency: open and visible process or inner workings that encourages trust. Examples: Open-source software.
Speed and scale
- Iteration: ability to iterate and change quickly, shortening the cycle time between improvements. Examples: SpaceX.
- Efficiency: uses a low amount of energy or resources to perform similar capabilities to competitors. Examples: LED bulbs.
- Agility: nimbleness, easily adapts to a changing environment. Examples: Gymnasts, squirrels, go-karts.
- Precision: high level of accuracy and exactness in performance or output. Examples: Swiss watches, CNC machining.
- Blitzing: sudden attack, expending intense resources in a concentrated manner. Examples: Hostile takeovers, blitz marketing campaigns.
- Composability: ability to assemble components and systems in different configurations. Examples: APIs, Stripe.
- Modularity: composed of independent units that can be used in different combinations. Examples: LEGO, prefab buildings.
Ease
- Intuitiveness: ease of use and understanding, without explicit instruction. Examples: Dieter Rams designs.
- Fun: provides enjoyment and amusement. Examples: Video games, amusement parks, Duolingo.
- Simplicity: limited points of failure, minimalistic design. Examples: Hammer, MUJI.
- Low-friction: minimal resistance or hassle in use or interaction. Examples: One-click ordering.
- Charm: charisma, ability to create loyalty and warmth through delightful personality or aesthetics. Examples: Oprah Winfrey, Paris.
Transformation
- Malleability: ability to change appearance or form, can be modified or customized easily. Examples: Clay, software code, method actors.
- Metamorphosis: transforms between states optimized for different functions or environments. Examples: Caterpillars → butterflies, tadpole → frogs.
- Copycat: replicates another's method or style. Examples: Fast fashion, generic brands.
This was originally written in November 2023, and published to my personal site. Updated in August 2026.
Cover image: Edgar Degas, Horses and Jockeys (ca. 1895)
