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Living on the Fault Line
Moore's 2000 book introducing core versus context and providing the strategic framework for established companies navigating disruptive technology transitions.
Living on the Fault Line, published in 2000, shifted Moore's focus from startups crossing the chasm to established companies managing disruption. The book introduced the core-versus-context distinction that became the most strategically consequential concept of Moore's later career, along with the shareholder-value-based framework for resource allocation during technology transitions. The central argument is that companies survive disruption by rigorously distinguishing the capabilities that differentiate them (core) from the capabilities that merely qualify them to compete (context), investing ruthlessly in the former and minimizing investment in the latter. The framework has shaped enterprise strategy for two decades and acquires particular relevance in the AI era, when AI is reclassifying what counts as core and what counts as context across nearly every knowledge industry.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The book was written during the dot-com era when traditional companies faced disruption from internet-native competitors. Moore's observation was that most incumbents failed not because they lacked resources but because they misallocated them — defending legacy capabilities that