Lévy Flight Search Pattern
Lévy flights are a search pattern characterized by mostly short steps with occasional very long jumps, following a power law distribution.
Lévy flights are a search pattern characterized by mostly short steps with occasional very long jumps, following a power law distribution. This pattern is optimal for finding sparse, unpredictable resources. Wandering albatrosses exhibit Lévy flight patterns - mostly short flights (1-5km) with rare long-distance journeys (100-200km). GPS tracking confirmed these flights are mathematically optimal for finding randomly distributed prey in oceans. The pattern differs from random walks (Brownian motion) which use short, random steps for thoroughly searching local areas when resources are clustered.
Business Application of Lévy Flight Search Pattern
Companies should match search strategy to market structure: random walks for geographically clustered customers (local ads, referrals), Lévy flights for randomly distributed opportunities (viral marketing, occasional big PR bets, geographic expansion jumps).