The entrepreneur and venture capitalist Max Levchin used a good expression for this effect referring to Silicon Valley and tech start-ups, and I like it for just about everything. While we were working on a book project together a few years ago, he called it “innovating at the margins.” That is, looking for small efficiencies instead of taking on more substantial risks in the main area of business. Levchin has been interested in online payment and alternative currencies since cofounding PayPal in 1998,
