4aapl
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Post by 4aapl on Sept 17, 2023 16:54:30 GMT -8
It's been around 13 years since I read "Guns, Germs, and Steel", but it still comes up surprisingly often.
The very short of it comes down to adaption. If hunter and prey both slowly adapt over time, they work together in a way. Instead, if suddenly the hunter shows up and is so far advanced, it can wipe out all prey before it knew what hit them. One example they used was of a cow like animal in Australia, that met its fate when man arrived that already had advanced hunting tools, and wiped it out.
The similar thing happened with germs (slow adaption to deal with them, vs suddenly hit by a super germ that developed elsewhere), Steel and guns (basically weapons of all kinds, but also advancements in general).
I found it interesting, even if my recall from it 13 years later is pretty basic. But you could apply it to many things, like Apple and its competition. If they all advance in somewhat lockstep, then the options might be somewhat even. But if some get behind, whether R&D it put on the back burner or Intel fumbles a few technology improvements, things can get lopsided and "change" in user base can happen much more quickly.
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