Electromagnetism

You're seeing Electromagnetism when a company attracts top talent and loyal customers without aggressive recruiting or marketing. The "field" — culture, brand, mission — pulls people in at a distance. Strong brands are strong fields.

You're seeing Electromagnetism when a platform's existing users create an invisible pull that attracts new users. No one is being directly recruited — the field does the work. This is the electromagnetic analog of network effects.

Build your electromagnetic field early — mission, culture, brand promise. These create pull that scales without linear effort. Monitor for repulsion signals: why do candidates decline, why do customers churn silently? The invisible field is always on, even when you're not actively selling or recruiting.

Edison didn't just invent the lightbulb — he built the entire electromagnetic ecosystem: generation, distribution, and consumption of electrical power. He understood that the value wasn't in any single device but in the invisible field of infrastructure that connected them all. His system thinking — power stations, wiring, meters, standards — created an electromagnetic field of utility that pulled an entire civilisation into electrification. Founders can apply this by building not just products but the infrastructure and ecosystem that makes those products essential. The product is the lightbulb; the moat is the grid.