the.com/disruptor
Someone who breaks the rules just long enough to write new ones in their name.
means A person or thing that deliberately upends an established system, process, or market in order to replace it with something new.
from From 'disrupt,' which traces back to Latin 'disrumpere' — 'dis' (apart) plus 'rumpere' (to break or burst). The same root that gives us 'rupture' and 'bankrupt' (literally a 'broken bench,' from the failed moneylender's table). 'Disruptor' itself is a 19th-century formation, but it went quiet until recent decades, when business and tech writers seized on 'disruptive innovation' to describe upstarts that break old markets apart to build new ones — turning a word about breakage into a badge of honor.
- origin
- Latin disrumpere, to break apart violently
- startup usage
- often means underpriced competitor with venture funding
- irony
- today's disruptor is tomorrow's incumbent begging for regulation
- survivorship bias
- failed disruptors are just called failures