A place that becomes popular ceases to offer what made it popular, so its success destroys the thing being sought.
The apparent contradiction dissolves once the two groups are separated: the people who valued it when it was quiet no longer go, and the crowd consists of people who came for its reputation. It is a congestion externality stated as a joke, and it describes restaurants, beaches, neighbourhoods and investment strategies equally well.
In practice
- A fund that publishes its edge finds the edge gone, and the inflow is what removed it.
- A quiet beach recommended in a newspaper is not the beach that was recommended.
- Standing
- The attribution to Berra is traditional and poorly documented, as with most remarks assigned to him.
- Subject
- Economics & Incentives
- Essay
- Rules for choosing, and the paradoxes that humbled the theory