Hypercompetition

Hypercompetition Is the New Steady State

A seven-essay series on what happens when intelligence becomes cheap

Every previous technology revolution followed the same arc: disruption, turbulence, consolidation, equilibrium. The internet restructured media, then settled into a Google-Meta duopoly. Cloud computing shook up enterprise IT, then consolidated around three hyperscalers. The pattern was reliable — chaos followed by calm.

AI breaks the pattern. When intelligence itself becomes a commodity input — cheap, abundant, improving on eighteen-month cycles — the competitive dynamics don't resolve into a new equilibrium. They accelerate. Barriers to entry dissolve. Product advantages compress from years to weeks. Markets that once consolidated now fragment and re-fragment.

This series examines why, with evidence from markets that have already undergone this transformation and a framework for understanding what comes next.

Essay 1 of 7
AI Isn't the Disruption
Why the 'AI disrupts X' framing misses the point. When intelligence itself becomes cheap, the disruption isn't technological; it's competitive.
16 min read
Essay 2 of 7
Intelligence on Tap
A systematic examination of which competitive barriers survive when intelligence is abundant, and which ones dissolve.
23 min read
Essay 3 of 7
This Has Happened Before
The telegraph, containerization, and the internet each made a critical input cheap. Each time, the same competitive pattern emerged.
22 min read
Essay 4 of 7
The Evidence Is Already Here
Product cloning in days, pricing collapse, one-person companies reaching millions in revenue. The hypercompetitive economy isn't theoretical; it's already measurable.
18 min read
Essay 5 of 7
The HFT Economy
High-frequency trading destroyed the old market-making business and created a new equilibrium of permanent, technology-driven competition. The broader economy is about to follow the same path.
21 min read
Essay 6 of 7
Counterforces
Regulation, network effects, physical constraints, and institutional inertia: the forces pushing back against hypercompetition, and how strong they actually are.
18 min read
Essay 7 of 7
The New Steady State
The disruption doesn't end. Hypercompetition isn't a phase to survive; it's the permanent condition of an intelligence-abundant economy.
15 min read