Brooks’ Law, and a Ladder for Strategy

(Nerdy strategy talk ahead; bear with me...)

I don’t have a lot of self-proclaimed wisdom. My last original bit was probably Brooks’ Law, coined in the early 1990s: Everything Is Small Time.

The thesis was simple—everything from cabinet decisions on down is driven by the same people-y factors you’d find in a neighborhood book club. Folks trying to look smart. Trying to make each other look dumb. Social anxiety. Imposter syndrome. Maybe they were up 2 lbs. on the scale that morning.

Then as now, I don’t think that’s cynical. I prefer that reality to the cold logic of actuarial tables or machine-driven decisionmaking. But if you ignore it? It’ll bite you in the ass.

I mention all that because I’m distilling down thoughts on strategy—something short enough to be understood by (and here, I dramatically sweep my hands widely) the normies and true enough for framing when the water gets muddy.

It’s meant for my odd world of comms and public policy. But the more I look at it, I think it’s probably sound for other domains, too.

Best product loses to best strategy: The best solution isn’t enough (Betamax says hey!). If you’re outmaneuvered on deployment, pricing, distribution, or bundling — you lose.

Best strategy loses to standards control: Great execution folds when someone else defines the parameters of what’s allowed, expected, or normal.

Standards control loses to regulatory reset: A new law, agency ruling, or shift in enforcement can upend the entire structure — no matter how entrenched the standard seemed.

Regulatory reset loses to behavioral disobedience: Law means little if the public stops following it en masse and the system lacks the will or ability to enforce. See: Napster, rideshares, marijuana legalization, crypto, AI policy, remote work.

And once you’re at behavioral disobedience? You’re already in the next phase of new-product/new-strategy fights. It’s a loop. Circle of life, etc.

From the fall of the Hays Code to the rise of Airbnb, the evolution of political platforms, or even the slow death of the DMV, I think this holds.

And none of it matters, except: People get stuck in their favorite part of the loop.

Product managers and inventors keep trying to build the perfect product. Lobbyists often can’t see beyond market capture via standards setting. Governments sit around watching broad disobedience and letting people sue each other into the dirt before acting.

This feels right but I don’t need to be right, if that makes sense. There are lots of ways to view the world. But building to last is a lot like captaining a ship: It’s good to have a map; it’s better to know what the sea acts like.

Greg W. Brooks. First published on Facebook, Oct. 13, 2025.