Startups can learn how to "fail forward" from mantis shrimp's layered clubs

Nature prevents big failures by allowing small failures. Startups succeed if they "fail fast, fail often".
George ILIEV

The mantis shrimp is a fascinating 30-cm crustacean in the tropical oceans. It is famous for its unusual colour vision (with 12 colour photoreceptors in the eyes) but also for the brutal force and lightning speed with which it stuns and catches its prey. The shrimp's sudden and powerful blow to mollusc or crab shells shatters them to pieces. It is even known to break aquarium glass with its massive clubs.

Research into the structure of the shrimp's claws carried out at the University of California, Riverside, shows that the clubs are composed of three separate layers of bony tissue. The big differences in orientation, stiffness and hardness between the layers allows small cracks to appear in each layer but stops these cracks from spreading across the entire structure. Counterintuitively, "nature prevents catastrophic failures by allowing local failures."

In the terminology of probability theorist Nassim Taleb, this would be the perfect example of anti-fragility, as described in his 2012 book "Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder". In the field of biomimicry, the multiple-layer structure is giving rise to bulletproof materials.

In the startup world, the principle of allowing small cracks is known as "fail fast, fail often". Small failures are part of establishing product/market fit and have saved many a startup from doom. The entrepreneurs who "fail forward" are forced to pivot towards new products, markets and business models and are thus more likely to succeed.

Photo: Mantis shrimp (Source: Wikipedia)

V-formation model aids bird flight, Asian industrialisation and mentoring

In multiple fields the first player helps the one behind – but only if lined up in strict order: slightly sideways

George ILIEV

Birds flying in V-formation need 20%-30% less energy than when flying alone. Big birds such as geese, storks and pelicans minimise their energy expenditure by capturing the uplift generated at the wing tips of the bird flapping in front, research published in the journal Nature reveals. However, for this mechanism to work, the second bird has to be located sideways from the leading bird. If flying directly behind, the follower would have to counteract a downdraft coming down the back of the leading bird.

The V-formation is clearly visible in the five-tiers of economic development of East Asia - the famous Flying Geese paradigm. As Asian countries industrialised after the 1960s, they moved in the wake of Japan and sequentially took on the older low-tech industries that Japan had outgrown. Textiles, toys, chemicals and steel, in which Japan once led the region, moved first to the four tigers (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore); then to a third tier of countries - Malaysia and Thailand; then to China; and now increasingly to Vietnam and India. Thus Japan created macroeconomic uplift for the four tiger economies behind it; they in turn passed on updraft to the ones following them and so on. And yet, the model worked so well because these countries did not exactly copy each industry but introduced slight variations - the sideshift seen in the V-formations of  birds.

Mentoring in a similar way creates metaphorical uplift for the “disciple” being mentored by a leading figure. And it is exactly the V-formation that distinguishes a "mentee" from a "protégé". The mentor-mentee relationship works best when the two are not in the same industry or organisation, i.e. when located sideways in V-formation. Otherwise when a "mentee" is moving immediately in the wake of the mentor in the same organisation, the mentee is more fittingly described with the unflattering term "protégé".

Rolled out on a grander, “open-access” scale, this model can even apply to the Linkedin influencers category, where 500+ influencers like Richard Branson and Jack Welch trample the road with their thoughts and wisdom for thousands of others to follow. A giant V-formation of birds indeed, numbering 3.5 million followers in the case of the No 1 influencer, Richard Branson.

Photo: Flying goose (Source: Wikipedia)

Photo: V-formation (Source: Wikipedia)

Decoys: favourite tools for bacteria and businesses

Bacteria secrete decoys to deflect virus attacks; Supermarkets set price decoys to distract customers.
George ILIEV

A recent MIT study published in the journal Science explores an interesting phenomenon: the ocean-dwelling photosynthesizing cyanobacteria produce bubbles of nutrients and DNA and release them “most charitably” into the ocean for other microorganisms to feed on. Cyanobacteria live in the sun-lit layers of water and account for over 50% of all photosynthesis in the ocean. As a crucial component of phytoplankton, the cyanobacteria are at the bottom of the food pyramid and are the food source for krill and other zooplankton. The mystery of the charitably secreted bubbles (vesicles) turns out to have a not-so-charitable explanation. The most intriguing hypothesis holds that the membrane-enclosed vesicles of DNA serve as decoys to attract virus attacks, thus vastly reducing the chance of viruses successfully zooming in onto the cyanobacteria themselves.

Companies use decoys in a similar way in “decoy pricing”, most eloquently described by Dan Ariely in his 2008 best-seller "Predictably Irrational" with the example of subscription plans for The Economist. When offering three or more products in the same category, supermarkets strategically price the most expensive two products at the same price level. The less attractive of the two products serves as a basis against which the customer compares (the more attractive product. Thus the customer is unconsciously nudged towards buying the more attractive expensive product as it appears to be a better deal for the same price, completely forgetting the cheapest product on the shelf.

Photo: Cyanobacteria in the ocean  (Source: Wikipedia)