The Blockbuster-Netflix Story: A Mental Niche Autopsy
How the video rental giant's greatest strength—their store network—became the trap that killed them.
8 min readWhy the better you get at something, the more dangerous it becomes.
Kodak invented the digital camera, then went bankrupt. Blockbuster had the chance to buy Netflix for $50 million. WeWork was valued at $47 billion before collapsing. These weren't stupid people making random mistakes. They were trapped in a Mental Niche.
Discover Your Mental NicheA Mental Niche is a self-reinforcing cognitive framework that forms when success creates expertise, and expertise creates blindness. It's not a single bias—it's an interconnected trap that affects individuals, teams, and entire industries.
You try many approaches. You're open to new ideas. Failure is just feedback.
Something works. You double down. Expertise develops. Success follows.
You filter out "noise" that doesn't fit your model. Confirmation bias kicks in.
Your strength becomes your identity. Changing feels like dying. Sunk costs pile up.
The world shifts. Your greatest strength becomes your fatal weakness.
How the video rental giant's greatest strength—their store network—became the trap that killed them.
8 min readThe psychology behind why we throw good money after bad—and how to recognize it in yourself.
6 min readFrom exploration to collapse: understanding the lifecycle of cognitive traps in business.
10 min readTake the 5-minute assessment to discover your cognitive blind spots before they become fatal.
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