Today on my way to a lecture I noticed two squirrels running around, one chasing the other. The first squirrel was using a classic strategy, running in a zig zag pattern, trying to illude the following squirrel, who was racing right on the tail of the first. As I walked toward these two frisky animals another student was approaching them from the other direction. Suddenly the leading squirrel dashed across the sidewalk, right into the path of the student who was walking along listening to his headset, oblivious to frolicking squirrels.

The first squirrel mannaged to avoid the feet of the student. The second squirrel ran head first into the student’s ankle, bounced off, landed in front of the student and just sat there staring. The startled student actually took his ear piece out, stopped, and stared back at the squirrel. For a moment we were all suspended in time. Then the student started laughing (a reaction I was pleased to see) and the squirrel wandered away to the edge of the sidewalk to contemplate his close brush with disaster. Squirrel number one sat triumphant in a tree, winner for the day.
Moral of the story. If you are the squirrel following your competitors tail too closely you are likely to get stomped.