3 ms·

An evolutionary mindset is probably more effective. Instead of saying "What can I prey on," you can say "What ecological niche is under-exploited or improperly

• stcredzero 16y ago
  I'm not sure it's necessarily more effective. Perhaps it's less sinister sounding. The problem with ecological niches as a mindset, is that some ecological niches are quite small. Then again, perhaps it's a useful metaphor, in that ecological niches are not static. In the case of social news/networks, sites often started out quite small, then changed their ecological niche over time. In fact, one can argue that reddit.com, Digg, MySpace, Facebook all shifted in this way. The pattern I see here, is that the ecological niche viewpoint is more strategic, whereas the predator/prey viewpoint is more tactical. When one is planning a site's entry into a certain market, one can choose a small niche that can be strategically grown into a larger one. When one is executing on that entry, look for a place where your understanding of the value proposition is better than those on the other side of your transaction. (Perhaps this is what Facebook's founder was thinking when he made that comment on people giving him their data.)