This is how disruption S-curves work.
1. You learn the negative sum game, striving hard to make it to zero-sum at least
2. Enlightened temporary exit to go find a kobayashi maru cheat code
3. Return to break through to positive-sum game
I did not appreciate the importance of step 2 until recently. You can’t find the cheat code while inside the loser game. You have to get out for a bit. I call it the hegira step.
But you have to return to the *same* game to make bank. Using the cheat code requires baseline skill at playing by the rules in the host game. A chess cheat code is no use in a bridge game. So the return is crucial.
the mistake social darwinists make is that they insist that some normative form *should* be adaptive when it's the thing that's *actually* adaptive that wins
Special case: thinking “predator” equals “adaptive”
In general prey and parasite species tend to be more adaptive in biomass fraction terms. Apex predators are often more fragile. Leopards survived human urban encroachment better than tigers in India for eg.