Regret Minimization Framework

Biological Parallel

Salmon don't return to their birth streams because it's optimal—they return because the cost of error is asymmetric. Spawn in the wrong stream and offspring face unsuitable conditions, ending your genetic lineage. Return to natal streams and you might not maximize offspring count, but you avoid catastrophic failure. This regret-minimization drives philopatry: when downside of exploration exceeds upside, fidelity to known-good solutions wins. Bezos applied identical logic to career risk.