Move Fast and Break Things
"Speed and iteration beat careful planning - ship fast, learn from mistakes, fix as you go"
Origin: Facebook's early motto (Mark Zuckerberg)
The Key Insight
Move fast and break things isn't a universal truth - it's an r-selection strategy optimized for unstable, early-stage environments. As environments stabilize, K-selection strategies (quality, reliability, trust) become superior. The strategic question is: what kind of environment are you actually in?
What People Think
In fast-moving markets, perfectionism is the enemy. Better to ship imperfect products quickly and iterate than to ship perfect products slowly. Velocity compounds.
The Deeper Truth
This is r-selection strategy from ecology - the approach used by species in unstable, unpredictable environments. R-strategists produce many offspring with little investment in each, betting that some will survive. It's the opposite of K-selection (few offspring, heavy investment), which dominates in stable environments. The question isn't which is 'better' - it's which matches your environment.
Biological Parallel
Bacteria, insects, and weeds are r-strategists - they reproduce rapidly, adapt quickly, and accept high mortality. Elephants, whales, and redwoods are K-strategists - slow reproduction, heavy parental investment, long lifespans. Neither is superior; they're adapted to different environments. Early Facebook was operating in an r-selection environment (unstable, undefined market, many competitors). Mature Facebook faces K-selection pressures (regulatory scrutiny, trust requirements, need for stability).
Business Application
Move-fast works when: (1) the market is undefined and you're searching for product-market fit, (2) mistakes are cheap and reversible, (3) speed to learn beats quality of execution, and (4) users will tolerate imperfection for novelty. It fails when: (1) mistakes are expensive or irreversible (healthcare, finance, infrastructure), (2) trust is essential (security, privacy), (3) the market is mature and quality is the differentiator, or (4) regulatory/legal consequences are severe.
When It Breaks Down
Facebook itself abandoned this motto as it matured, replacing it with 'Move fast with stable infrastructure.' The r-strategy that built the company became a liability when operating at scale with regulatory scrutiny. Many startups fail by applying r-selection strategy to K-selection problems - moving fast in domains where broken things cause real harm.