The more you put in, the less it starts to mean.
The Law of Diminishing Returns states that there is a non-uniform return on investment, and that return tends to trend negatively over time.
This is a particular case in the more general Pareto Principle. The Pareto Principle says that not all inputs have the same effect on output, the Law of Diminishing Returns states that even within one input, there is a strata of ROI.
🔑 Just because an effort produces a good result doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worth expanding upon.
This overlaps heavily with the concept of Minimum Effective Dose.
It should be said that this “law” has exceptions. The ROI curve is a consideration to make case-by-case.
Examples
- The person who exercises 3.5 times a week is more than half as strong and fit as a person who trains every day.
- The difference between 40k/year is much more noticeable than the difference between 110k.
- Old mother Russia building factory after factory, only to find they weren’t really producing many more tanks.