The evolution of memetics ideas Ideas don't just replicate from person to person or person to stored medium to person but also evolve and just like evolution ideas can get into a evolutionary dead end.

One policy strategy can seem more successful at first to tackling a problem than an alternative (E.G. public heath care vs private healthcare)

Those the strategy you've taken could have limitations where it's difficult to improve on it, working yourself into a dead end.
Even those the other idea at first was not as successful it doesn't have the same limitations on improvements.