Path dependence shapes what we do next

The bias toward sticking with (or at least not deviating very far from) the status quo is very strong. Varol observers that “The default carries immense power... This idea is called path dependence: What we’ve done before shapes what we do next.”^[1]

If you had any doubts about our obsession with the status quo, take a look at all these idioms we’ve dedicated to avoiding change: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” “Don’t rock the boat.” “Don’t change horses in the middle of the stream.” “Go with the devil you know.”^[2]

One reason for this is that the accumulation of knowledge—”the way we do things around here”—can have a paralyzing effect on disruptive innovation.

But the same qualities that make knowledge a virtue can also turn it into a vice. Knowledge shapes. Knowledge informs. It creates frameworks, labels, categories, and lenses through which we view the world. It acts as a haze, an Instagram filter, and a poetic structure under which we live our lives. These structures are notoriously hard to beat back, and for good reason: They’re useful. They provide us with cognitive shortcuts for making sense of the world. They make us more efficient and productive. But if we’re not careful, they can also distort our vision.^[3]

#psychology #cognition