How to use the explore-exploit principle to use your time better

When to follow the same path and when to break away

Dear Rethinkers,

From a young age, I’ve been fascinated by watching marching ants. It’s the way they carry things far bigger than their tiny bodies and navigate space. I used to think ants marched in a beautiful single line towards a clear destination. That’s the classic image, right? But this is only partly true.

When you look closer, you’ll see that while most ants follow a direct pheromone trail to and from a food source, there are small groups that veer off and seem to be wandering around aimlessly. They are not following the army. Are they rogue ants? Lazy ones shirking their duties? Or are they the explorers?

It turns out that we can learn a lot from these nonconforming ants about how we allocate our time and resources. This concept is known as the ‘explore-exploit’ principle, first coined by Stanford Professor James March in 1991.

How much time in life should we spend exploring new unknown opportunities, and how much should we spend exploiting things with a known value?

It’s a principle that has been a valuable compass in my professional life and creative pursuits in rethinking space and time. I’m excited to share it with paid subscribers today.

Exploitation vs. exploration