This Is Strategy: Make Better Plans (Create a Strategy to Elevate Your Career, Community & Life)

by Seth Godin

In The Beak of the Finch, Jonathan Weiner tells a story of how Peter and Rosemary Grant measure (to the millimeter) the length of the beaks on finches born on one island in the Galapagos. During wet periods, conditions are such that long-beaked finches are more successful at finding food, and therefore they are more likely to reproduce, so the percentage of finches with long beaks increases. But if the climate changes and there’s a long dry spell, these finches struggle, while the short-beaked finches are more easily able to find the food they need. So the population shifts again. That’s why there are still finches—the evolutionary response to the climate’s changes keeps them from going extinct. On the other hand, feedback loops can also cycle in the other direction, spiraling out of control. A simple example is the release of rabbits in Australia a century ago. With no predators and plenty of food, they multiplied (like rabbits) until a crisis occurred.