Fundamentals of Level Three Leadership

55. The Experience Economy

Concept

Pine and Gilmore’s book, The Experience Economy,¹⁹ introduces a very interesting historical overview of human economic activity with huge immediate implications. They tell a high-level story that goes roughly like this:

About 10000 BC, humans in large numbers changed their basic economic paradigm from hunter gatherers to farmers herders. Other sources suggest this occurred in significant part because humans had basically decimated all the large fauna.²⁰ Instead of killing animals and gathering berries, humans decided to stop wandering and plant food and grow herds of food. Taking grains and meats from the ground in large numbers, humans soon learned that the margins on grown food began to shrink. Essentially, ...