How Successful Companies Go Blind: The Danger of Competence Blindness

Successful Companies Go Blind

I compare successful companies to Mexican cavefish that lose their sight in dark environments. When firms grow rapidly, they often stop recognizing true competence, creating a culture where careful engineering becomes a vestigial trait. Instead of adapting, these organizations build bureaucratic centers of excellence that suppress innovation, causing talented engineers to either leave or slowly go blind themselves.

"Staying is apoptosis."