Red Queen Effect

The Red Queen Effect is a mental model that comes from Biology and evolution. Scientists hypothesized that species must constantly adapt, evolve, and proliferate to compete. They have to keep running just to stay in place.

The name is a reference to the Red Queen character in Through the Looking Glass. After running in the forest a while, Alice observes that it seems like she hasn’t been moving at all. And the Queen responds “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”

This is a model I think about when discussing investment in infrastructure, or addressing tech debt. Sometimes tech leaders have trouble justifying the need to invest in these things, because the CEO/CFO/COO feel like it isn’t moving the business forward. The fact is, there is some amount of running we must do just to stay in place. There is some amount of investment in infrastructure and tech debt that we must do just to stay in place.