Ever heard of the buttered cat paradox?
The buttered cat paradox is a humorous thought experiment which combines two common adages:
- cats always land on their feet, and
- buttered toast always lands buttered side down.
While you may think it’s an urban legend, experiments have shown 81% of the time buttered toast lands on the floor butter side down. Also, a phenomenon known as the cat righting reflex has shown cats almost always land on their feet if they fall from a sufficient height.
The paradox imagines what would happen if a cat is dropped with toast strapped to its back butter side up. Since the toast has to land butter side down and the cat has to land on its feet, hypothetically the combination would hover mid-air spinning in place while it tried to resolve these conflicting conditions.
The paradox was likely inspired by a joke made by San Franciscan comedian/musician/juggler Michael Davis in an 1988 appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. You can watch it here at the 3 minute 40 second mark. The paradox joke has been used many different ways since then, including this award-winning commercial from Brazilian energy drink Flying Horse.
What would happen if someone tried this in real life? Physics tells us the rotational force of the cat would more than counteract the rotational force of the lighter toast so the cat would land on its feet. Once the cat landed, friction between its paws and the ground would keep it from spinning and the toast would remain butter side up.
In my experience, there is a loose parallel between the buttered cat paradox and how large companies approach innovation – otherwise known as the innovation paradox. Large public companies become risk averse because they are severely penalized by financial markets if they miss sales or earnings targets. Predictability is rewarded; the cat must always land on its feet. Innovation is inherently risky; by definition and design, more often than not it fails – the toast lands butter side down. Companies strap buttered toast onto the back of the cat hoping they get the benefit of innovation while keeping the cat on its feet. It rarely works.
The buttered cat paradox is fun to think about but not a great way to run a business.
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