Bees outlasted dinosaurs and have been buzzing about for over 20 million years. In evolutionary terms, that’s an astonishing success story.

So this must be doing something right. Their secret? They follow a beautifully simple yet staggeringly effective algorithm called the wiggle dance.

Here’s how it works: when a worker bee (a female bee) finds a great source of nectar, she returns to the hive and performs a little choreography, the

wiggle dance. This dance tells the other bees exactly where the treasure lies, minimizing wasted effort and maximizing nectar collection. Most bees follow the directions dutifully, zooming off to collect what’s already known. Just like businesses, this algorithm is designed to minimize effort, maximize returns.

But, and here’s where the brilliance lies, not all bees comply. About 20% ignore the dance entirely, choosing instead to explore new

and uncharted territory. These rogue bees are the oddballs, the risk-takers, the ones with a high likelihood of failure. Nine out of ten times, they’ll

return empty-handed. But every now and then, one stumbles upon an untapped paradise of nectar that none of the waggle-followers would ever have found.

This is why bees have outlasted dinosaurs. Their strategy is not only about efficiency; it’s about resilience. They hedge their bets, tolerating a little short-term waste to secure potential massive long-term gains. And crucially, when a rogue bee strikes gold, the entire hive benefits. Information flows back, the wiggle dance is updated, and what was once a crazy gamble becomes the new standard.