Secrets From the School of Googlenomics

Witness the birth of Google, the business giant:

Veach and Kamangar argued that all the ad slots should be auctioned off. In search, Google had already used scale, power, and clever algorithms to change the way people accessed information. By turning over its sales process entirely to an auction-based system, the company could similarly upend [...]

The rising marginal cost of originality

David Friedman describes what he calls the marginal cost of originality:

Suppose you are the two hundred and ninetieth city planner in the history of the world. All the good ideas have been used, all the so-so ideas have been used, and you need something new to make your reputation. You [...]