Mechanism

The Dinosaur's Dilemma

TL;DR

Perfect adaptation to current environment creates extinction vulnerability when environments shift.

Extinction Dynamics

The more perfectly adapted you become to your current environment, the more vulnerable you are when that environment shifts.

Specialists are more extinction-prone than generalists because specialists depend on specific resources (food, habitat, climate). If those resources disappear, specialists can't switch to alternatives. The more perfectly adapted you become to your current environment, the more vulnerable you are when that environment shifts. Dinosaurs mastered the Mesozoic world. That mastery killed them when the asteroid struck. Giant pandas (>99% bamboo diet) exemplify this risk - if bamboo forests are destroyed, pandas have no alternative food source.

Business Application of The Dinosaur's Dilemma

Perfect adaptation to current environment creates extinction vulnerability when environments shift. Enron was perfectly adapted to an environment of deregulation, lax accounting oversight, and investor optimism - that perfection became fatal when conditions reversed. Sears perfected physical retail in a world moving to e-commerce.

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