Red Queen effect
Etymology
From Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, where the Red Queen tells Alice "it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." The biologist Leigh Van Valen borrowed it in 1973 for species locked in constant co-adaptation.
noun · /RED KWEEN ih-FEKT/
Having to keep improving just to hold your current position, because everyone else is improving too.
What it names
The exhausting logic of competition and evolution — running hard only to stay in place.
Example
Each rival matched the others’ new features instantly, so all that spending bought nothing but survival — the Red Queen effect.
Related idea
A hedonic treadmill keeps your happiness in place; the Red Queen effect keeps your competitive position in place.