Storage Economics
The fundamental insight: Cost of storage < Cost of running out.
Accept waste to survive scarcity.
Every organism faces the calculation of when to consume resources immediately versus storing them for later. Storage incurs costs: energy expenditure (burying acorns, synthesizing fat), memory burden (tracking cache locations), theft (10-15% of caches stolen), and spoilage (5-10% loss). For squirrels, total storage loss reaches 35-50% of cached resources. Yet the alternative - no storage - means death when resources disappear seasonally.
Business Application of Storage Economics
Companies face the same storage economics calculation: cash reserves earn 1-2% but provide crisis survival buffer, while immediate deployment might earn 10-15% returns but leaves no cushion for recessions. The fundamental insight: Cost of storage < Cost of running out.