S2E3: The Invisible Game

We obsess over visible strategies. But Martin Heidegger noted that skilled carpenters make hammers vanish.

It becomes "ready-to-hand" – where tool and user merge into seamless action.

Only when it breaks does it become "present-at-hand" – an object examined.

The ultimate strategic goal isn't to be noticed. It's to disappear.

I've found this paradox repeatedly challenges conventional business thinking.

What makes a strategy truly powerful? I think it's when it becomes so embedded it's no longer consciously recognized.

Have you considered the masters of invisibility?

Amazon made buying disappear into living through 1-Click purchasing and Prime's frictionless delivery.

Apple dissolved technology into experience by hiding complexity behind intuitive interfaces.

Venmo and Apple Pay succeed precisely because users forget they're using them.

TikTok's For You page anticipates needs so seamlessly we forget we're using an algorithm.

The strategic master move—the move that separates true strategists from tacticians—is this:

Make your offering so integrated it becomes part of your audience's unconscious workflow.

Your greatest strategic opportunity isn't being noticed more, but less – becoming so integrated into your audience's world that you disappear from view.

I wonder... isn't invisibility the ultimate form of presence?

Or is it?

To be continued in S2E4: The Paradox of Presence