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| A non-poisonous frog. Taken from wikipedia |
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| A poison dart frog |
There is one simple wisdom about our environment: bright color animals are usually poisonous! The idea is, the color warns their predators wannabe: "If you eat me, you will die too!" And this is not a mere anecdote or superstition. It's a real biological phenomena called aposematism. Poison dart frog, coral snake, etc use this tactic to survive.
But, since this is an imperfect world, a freeloader is inevitable. Many other animals who are not poisonous at all, develop similar bright colors through evolution. This way they can keep many predators away without the need to produce any kind of poison. There is also a scientific term for that: Batesian mimicry. The 2 frogs on the picture are examples of aposematism & Batesian mimicry.
Note that those Batesian mimics does NOT want to be freeloaders. Evolution here is not about the choice of the freeloaders, since they can't choose the color of their skins. It is about the choice of their predators! It is the predators who choose to avoid bright frogs for example, making bright frogs thrive, regardless whether they really poisonous or not.
Note that those Batesian mimics does NOT want to be freeloaders. Evolution here is not about the choice of the freeloaders, since they can't choose the color of their skins. It is about the choice of their predators! It is the predators who choose to avoid bright frogs for example, making bright frogs thrive, regardless whether they really poisonous or not.
Aposematism in Business world
Same thing happens in our consumer-capitalist world.
In the animal world, bright color indicates poison. In the capitalist world, high price indicates high quality. Of course it is reasonable to charge higher if you have better goods/services. But that makes people think that high price per se is equal with high quality! You know what I am talking right? The overprice shits they sell on infomercials, caviars, etc. Oh, I almost forget, the biggest offender here is APPLE INC. ! They sell overprice products that basically do more or less the same, or even less in comparison with their competitors like Microsoft, Asus, Google, HTC, etc.
First I thought people who buy Apple products REPEATEDLY are just dumb. How come Steve Jobs' overpriced handphone, tablet, and computers used by so many?
But after second thought, they are not dumb. The ridiculously high price IS part of the charm. That way Apple can claim how "different" they are from other computer producers. That way its users can boast "See this overprice shit with Apple logo on it? Yeah baby, MY PARENTS BUY IT FOR ME, unlike your poor or stingy parents! LOSER!" It is like if those batesian mimics boasting how poisonous they are to their peers too? No no, actually it is like some predators boasting that they avoid some bright frogs. "See how smart I am? I know that is poisonous so I avoid it!" the problem is, they actually got duped. They avoid harmless frogs. They boast their own ignorance. Never mind, most important is, they can boast. Let them be happy.
First I thought people who buy Apple products REPEATEDLY are just dumb. How come Steve Jobs' overpriced handphone, tablet, and computers used by so many?
But after second thought, they are not dumb. The ridiculously high price IS part of the charm. That way Apple can claim how "different" they are from other computer producers. That way its users can boast "See this overprice shit with Apple logo on it? Yeah baby, MY PARENTS BUY IT FOR ME, unlike your poor or stingy parents! LOSER!" It is like if those batesian mimics boasting how poisonous they are to their peers too? No no, actually it is like some predators boasting that they avoid some bright frogs. "See how smart I am? I know that is poisonous so I avoid it!" the problem is, they actually got duped. They avoid harmless frogs. They boast their own ignorance. Never mind, most important is, they can boast. Let them be happy.
So Apple fanboys are not idiots. They are just jerks. Certified jerks. And there is another difference too. In the animal world, only the predators influence the process of aposematism and Batesian mimicries. In our capitalist world, both the producers (preys) and consumers (predators) decide his process. So, in other words: Apple Inc. is not an accidental freeloaders. They consciously choose to be freeloaders. Hey, who can blame them, they only want to squeeze tons of money from their customers ... sorry my bad, from their fanboys and worshipers.
Steve Jobs is the best milker of all time. Let's see whether Tim Cook can milk people as good as good ol' Steve!
