Scientific Definition
Value grows with the number of users.
Plain-English Definition
Value grows with the number of users.
Feynman Explanation
The right side of the network wins. The wrong side dies.
Core Principle
Value grows with the number of users.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Value grows with the number of users.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Evaluating platform strategy and competitive moats.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
The right side of the network wins. The wrong side dies.
Examples
- Phones, marketplaces, social platforms, LinkedIn.
- Evaluating platform strategy and competitive moats.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Distinguish real network effects from cosmetic ones.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Distinguish real network effects from cosmetic ones.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Costs or benefits that affect third parties not involved in a transaction.
Systems that gain from disorder.
Approach motivation — pursuit of rewards and goals.
Avoidance motivation — sensitivity to punishment, uncertainty, and threat.
Map reinforcing (R) and balancing (B) feedback loops between variables to see system behavior.
A system with many interacting parts that learn and adapt.
Many interacting parts producing emergent behavior nobody designed.
Single-loop fixes the action. Double-loop questions the goal or model that produced it.
System 1 is fast, automatic, intuitive; System 2 is slow, effortful, deliberate.
Interdependent network of actors evolving together.
The whole has properties that the individual parts do not.
Systems maintain stability by self-regulating around a setpoint.