Concept · Silicon Valley / Startup Dogma
Schlep Blindness
Origin: Paul Graham
Biological Parallel
Most predators ignore porcupines—70,000 quills make the meal technically accessible but operationally nightmarish. The few that master the technique (fishers, great horned owls) access an abundant resource competitors avoid. Schlep blindness is niche partitioning through coordination costs: the difficulty of execution creates a competitive moat. Biology rewards specialists who embrace complexity others find intolerable.