death spirals
Accelerating downward cycles
A death spiral is a self-reinforcing decline where each negative outcome worsens the next.
In aviation, it's a dangerous descending turn where increasing speed tightens the spiral.
The term extends to any situation where problems compound: The company entered a death spiral of layoffs and declining morale.
In insurance, death spirals occur when rising premiums drive healthy customers away, leaving only costly ones, which raises premiums further.
- plungeSudden steep descent
- nosediveSudden steep descent
- free fallUnimpeded gravitational descent
- going down in flamesFailing catastrophically and publicly
- crash and burnFail completely and visibly
fatal · decline · collapse · ice skating · failure · financial contagion · bankruptcy · stall · learned helplessness · angle of attack · self-sabotage · insolvency · economic depression · downwards · mortal · feedback loop · doom loop · circling the drain
death spiralsvirtuous cycles
Self-perpetuating beneficial patterns
renaissance · resurgence · turnaround · revival · ascent
death spiralsequilibrium
State of balance
stabilization · homeostasis · steady state · resilience · course correction
death spiralsrebirth
Spiritual or physical regeneration
renaissance · revival · resurgence · flourishing · renewal
death, deaths, deadly, deadliness, deaden, deadened, spiral, spirals, spiraled