From a comment on LinkedIn, 29 July 2026, on Eric Ries’s article “Harder is Easier. Here’s why.”:
Eric Ries’s observation in his latest “Trust is Everything” newsletter that “Harder is Easier” is absolutely true… And this isn’t just an observation about business, it’s a basic fact of biology.
What makes a decision harder versus easier? He mentions “an unwavering commitment to principled decision-making”, as against taking shortcuts that you’ll have to clean up later. Principled means integrative, long-range, in other words thinking at higher scales, versus thinking only with a narrow focus and going for the short-term, immediate (but ultimately smaller) reward (like optimizing for the next quarterly report rather than the overall long-term success of the business).
In biology, I call these processes exvolution (greater generalization, moving toward greater adaptability in a broader range of niches) and involution (greater specialization, or adaptation to a specific niche). Involution provides greater short-term payouts, so it is by far the more common process, but when exvolution does occur, it typically wins in the long run (approaching ALWAYS given long enough time scales).
And the same thing applies in business. When you put in the hard work to think in a long-range, principled way, in the long run you will tend to succeed over those who are relatively narrow, short-range, and unprincipled in their thinking, taking the “easy” road or path of least resistance.
