Systems archetype: Success to the Successful
The Success to the Successful systems archetype explains how very small differences, and random factors, can lead to one actor in a system to be hugely more successful than other actors: how monopolies are created why income is so unevenly distributed in many countries why success in the school system leads to success later in life how Microsoft became dominant in the software market ...and many other phenomena. Success to the Successful provides an explanation model for the Pareto Principle , the observation that in many systems, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. To understand the causal loop diagram above: Assume that you have two actors A and B. A and B compete for resources. A and B may start out being equal. That is, there may be no observable difference that would give either a competitive advantage. As long as the system is perfectly balanced, nothing interesting happens, but, if there is a random event that either favors A, or ha...