Natural Sciences

Adaptation & Red Queen Effect

Leigh Van Valen

Continuous adaptation is required just to maintain relative position.

Complex Adaptive Systems

Murray Gell-Mann

Many interacting agents self-organise to produce emergent behaviour.

Critical Mass

Thomas Schelling

The tipping-point threshold where a process becomes self-sustaining.

Entropy

Rudolf Clausius / Ludwig Boltzmann

All ordered systems tend toward disorder unless energy is continuously invested.

Flywheel

Jim Collins

Self-reinforcing momentum built through consistent effort in one direction.

Incentives

Charlie Munger / Adam Smith

People respond to rewards and punishments, not instructions.

Inertia

Newton / Galileo

Systems resist change proportional to their accumulated mass.

Laws of Thermodynamics

Energy transforms but never appears from nothing — every conversion has a cost.

Leverage (Physics)

Archimedes

A small force at the right point moves disproportionately large loads.

Momentum

Isaac Newton

Mass times velocity — once moving fast and heavy, nearly impossible to stop.

Natural Selection & Extinction

Charles Darwin

Survival belongs to the fit, not the strong — adapt or face extinction.

Newton's Laws

Isaac Newton

Three laws of motion governing force, mass, acceleration, and reaction.

Path Dependence

Paul David / Brian Arthur

Early decisions constrain all future possibilities — history matters.

Systems Thinking

Jay Forrester

Examine interconnections and feedback loops, not isolated components.

Thermodynamics

Every system has an energy budget — ignore the metabolic cost and it dies.

Activation Energy

Reactions do not start the instant ingredients touch. They need a minimum energy input — activation energy — to overcome the barrier between initial and final state. In chemistry,...

Autocatalysis

In an autocatalytic reaction, the product of the reaction speeds up the reaction itself. The output is a catalyst for its own production. Growth is not linear; it accelerates....

Bullwhip Effect

Small changes in demand at the consumer end of a supply chain amplify as they move upstream. Retailers see a 5% bump and order 10% more to be safe. Wholesalers see lumpy orders...

Butterfly Effect

Edward Lorenz

A small change in initial conditions can produce a large change in outcome. The metaphor — a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil could theoretically alter the path of a tornado...

Catalysis

A catalyst speeds a reaction without being consumed. It lowers the activation energy — the barrier between initial and final state — by providing an alternative path. The reaction...

Center of Gravity

Carl von Clausewitz

In physics, the center of gravity is the point at which an object's mass can be considered concentrated for the purpose of analyzing forces and balance. In military strategy,...

Chain Reaction

A chain reaction is a sequence in which each step triggers the next. One event causes another, which causes another; the reaction propagates. In nuclear physics, a neutron hits a...

Chaos Theory

Chaos theory studies deterministic systems that are nonetheless unpredictable in practice. The equations have no random terms — the future is fully determined by the present — but...

Competition

Competition is the struggle for limited resources. In ecology, species compete for food, space, and mates; the fittest persist, the rest are displaced or eliminated. The same...

Cooperation (Symbiosis)

In biology, symbiosis is the living together of different species in a way that affects one or both. Mutualism is the case where both benefit — the classic example is the bee and...

Dunbar's Number

Robin Dunbar

Human brains can maintain only so many stable social relationships. Robin Dunbar proposed a ceiling: roughly 150 people. Beyond that, you know names and faces but cannot track who...

Ecosystems

An ecosystem is a set of actors that depend on one another for survival and growth. In nature, species occupy niches; they compete, cooperate, and co-evolve. In business,...

Equilibrium

Equilibrium is the state where opposing forces balance and the system has no tendency to change unless disturbed. In physics, a ball at the bottom of a bowl is in equilibrium;...

Exaptation

Stephen Jay Gould / Elisabeth Vrba

Exaptation is the use of a trait or technology for a function other than the one it evolved or was designed for. Feathers may have evolved for thermoregulation before they were...

Filling a Vacuum

Nature abhors a vacuum; so do markets and organisations. Where there is unmet demand, unserved need, or empty authority, something will fill it. The model is physical: a vacuum...

Frame of Reference

Measurements and judgments depend on where you stand. In physics, velocity and position are relative to a frame of reference — a coordinate system or observer. There is no...

Friction & Viscosity

Friction resists motion; viscosity is resistance to flow. In physics, friction opposes relative motion between surfaces; viscosity is the internal resistance of a fluid to...

Half-life

Half-life is the time for half of something to decay or disappear. In physics, it describes radioactive isotopes: after one half-life, half the atoms have decayed; after two, a...

Hedonic Treadmill

Brickman / Campbell

People adapt to their circumstances. A raise or a new car boosts happiness for a while, then baseline returns. Setbacks hurt, then we adapt. The hedonic treadmill is the idea that...

Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

Heisenberg

You cannot know both the position and the momentum of a particle with arbitrary precision. The more precisely you fix one, the more uncertain the other becomes. Heisenberg's...

Hierarchical Organisation

Complex systems achieve coordination through layered structure: authority, information, and tasks flow along clear reporting lines. Hierarchy is not bureaucracy — it is the...

Homeostasis

Claude Bernard / Walter Cannon

Systems that persist do so by staying within viable bounds. Homeostasis is the set of mechanisms that detect deviation from a set point and correct back toward it. Body...

Irreversibility

Jeff Bezos

Some changes cannot be undone. Irreversibility is the property that certain processes run one way: time, entropy, and many decisions move forward only. You can't unburn fuel,...

Niches

A niche is a subset of the environment where specific conditions allow a subset of players to survive and thrive. In ecology, a niche is the role a species plays — what it eats,...

Reciprocity (Physics)

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Newton's third law is reciprocity in mechanics: forces come in pairs. When you push on a wall, the wall pushes back. When...

Relativity

Einstein

Outcomes and judgments depend on the frame from which they're observed. Relativity in physics — Einstein's special and general relativity — says that measurements of time, length,...

Scale & Limits

Things that work at one size often break or bend at another. Scale and limits is the principle that systems have operating ranges: too small and you don't get the benefits of...

Signalling & Countersignalling

Signalling is the use of observable actions or traits to convey information that would otherwise be hard to verify. Because the signal is costly or hard to fake, it is credible. A...

Tendency to Minimize Energy Output

Systems — physical, biological, and organisational — tend toward states that require less energy to maintain. A ball rolls downhill. Organisms conserve calories. People take...

Velocity

Velocity is rate of change with direction — how fast you're moving and where. In physics it's displacement per unit time (vector); in product and orgs it's output per unit time in...

Alloying

Alloying is the process of combining two or more elements to create a material with properties superior to any individual component. Bronze is stronger than copper or tin alone....

Atomic Theory

Everything complex is built from a finite set of simple, indivisible components. In physics, all matter reduces to atoms — a small periodic table produces every substance in the...

Baton Passing

In relay racing, the baton pass is the most critical moment — where speed is gained or lost. The metaphor maps directly to organisations: transitions between roles, teams, phases,...

Copernican Principle

Nicolaus Copernicus

The Copernican Principle holds that you are not special — your position, timing, or perspective is not privileged. Just as Copernicus showed Earth wasn't the centre of the...

Determinism

Determinism holds that every event is the inevitable result of prior causes. In physics, given perfect knowledge of initial conditions, the future is theoretically predictable....

Electromagnetism

Electromagnetism describes how electric and magnetic fields interact — invisible forces that attract, repel, and propagate at a distance. In physics, it's one of the four...

Foundational Species

In ecology, a foundational species creates and maintains the habitat that allows an entire ecosystem to exist. Coral builds reefs; old-growth trees create forest canopies. Remove...

Herd Immunity

Herd immunity occurs when enough members of a group are protected against a threat that the threat can no longer spread effectively — even to those who aren't individually...

Heredity

Heredity is the transmission of traits from one generation to the next. In biology, DNA carries information that determines physical characteristics, predispositions, and...

Kinetics

Kinetics is the study of rates — how fast reactions occur, not just whether they occur. In chemistry, a reaction can be thermodynamically favourable but kinetically slow: it will...

Memetic Theory of Conflict

Rene Girard

Mimetic theory, originated by Rene Girard, proposes that conflict arises not from scarcity or rational disagreement but from imitative desire — people want the same things because...

Memetic Theory of Desire

Rene Girard

Rene Girard’s mimetic theory holds that human desire is not autonomous — we don’t want things because of their intrinsic value but because other people want them. Desire is...

Molecular Shape

In chemistry, a molecule’s shape determines its function. The same atoms arranged differently produce radically different substances — carbon arranged as graphite is soft and...

Nature vs Nurture

The nature vs nurture debate asks whether traits are determined by genetics (nature) or environment (nurture). In biology, the answer is both — genes set a range of potential, and...

Peak Oil

M. King Hubbert

Peak oil describes the point at which extraction of a finite resource reaches its maximum rate, after which production irreversibly declines. The concept, introduced by geologist...

Polarity

Polarity describes the existence of two opposing but interdependent forces — positive and negative, attraction and repulsion, growth and stability. In physics, charged particles...

Potential

Potential is stored capacity — energy, ability, or opportunity that exists but hasn't yet been converted into action or output. In physics, a boulder at the top of a hill holds...

Principle of Minimum Energy

The Principle of Minimum Energy states that systems naturally settle into the configuration requiring the least energy to maintain. Water flows downhill. Electrons occupy the...

Quantum Mechanics

Quantum mechanics describes a world where outcomes are fundamentally probabilistic, not deterministic. At the subatomic level, particles don't have fixed states until they're...

Replication

Replication is the process of copying a successful pattern with high fidelity. In biology, DNA replicates to build organisms; errors in replication cause mutations. In business,...

Resonant Frequency

Every system has a natural frequency at which it vibrates most efficiently. Apply energy at that frequency and the system amplifies — small inputs produce massive outputs. Apply...

Reward System

The reward system is the brain's built-in mechanism for reinforcing behaviour. Dopamine — the neurotransmitter at its core — doesn't signal pleasure; it signals anticipated...

Self-Preservation

Self-preservation is the fundamental biological drive to maintain one's existence. Every organism — from bacteria to corporations — develops mechanisms to detect threats and take...

Shannon-Hartley Law

Shannon & Hartley

The Shannon-Hartley theorem defines the maximum rate at which information can be transmitted over a communication channel with a given bandwidth and noise level. The formula is...

Sustainability

Sustainability is the capacity of a system to maintain itself over time without depleting the resources it depends on. In ecology, an ecosystem is sustainable when consumption...

The Chemical Bond

A chemical bond is the force that holds atoms together to form molecules. The bond forms because the combined state is more stable — lower energy — than the atoms existing...

The Chemical Reaction

A chemical reaction occurs when substances combine or break apart to form something new. Reactants go in; products come out. The key insight: reactions require specific conditions...

Viscosity

Viscosity is a fluid's resistance to flow. High-viscosity fluids like honey move slowly; low-viscosity fluids like water flow freely. As a mental model, viscosity describes the...