Some companies don’t fail because they were wrong. They fail because they were right too fast.
That pattern has a name: the Overwhelmed.
It’s what happens when melt rate outruns capacity—when the team is doubling, the product is being rebuilt while customers are using it, and there’s no time to document, onboard, or even process the last pivot before the next one. From the inside, it feels like momentum. In reality, it’s overflow.
Overflow is nonlinear. A little too much change is manageable. Sustained excess change burns trust, context, and judgment faster than the organization can replace them. Good people don’t suddenly get worse. The system stops being able to metabolize what it has already set in motion.
That matters now because our tools keep increasing the rate of change. If you can create more agency than your organization can absorb, speed stops being an advantage. It becomes a solvent.