Slogging through a particularly dense piece for class, I found a terrific nugget about the adaptive nature of entrepreneurship. Too cool...
While in the accustomed channels his own ability and experience suffice for the normal individual, when confronted with innovations he needs guidance. While he swims with the stream in the circular flow which is familiar to him, he swims against the stream if he wishes to change its channel. What was formerly a help becomes a hindrance. What was the familiar datum becomes an unknown. Where the boundaries of routine stop, many people can go no further, and the rest can only do so in a highly variable manner. The assumption that conduct is prompt and rational is in all cases a fiction. [...] The carrying out of new combinations [of means of production] is a special function, and the privilege of a type of people who are much less numerous than all those who have the 'objective' possibility of doing it. Therefore, finally, entrepreneurs are a special type.
-Schumpeter, 1961, Theory of Economic Development
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