TB: Law of Diminishing Returns

Each additional unit of input yields less additional output than the last. The first effort in a domain yields disproportionately high return; subsequent efforts yield progressively less. This is a near-universal feature of complex systems.

The practical implication is the 80/20 rule: get broad coverage of a domain at the level where the returns are still high, then choose selectively which deep dives are worth the cost. Applied to knowledge: acquire breadth first, then specialize. Applied to optimization: identify where you are on the curve before investing more.

• Law of diminishing returns (source note): The example of an economist banning calculators — forcing manual computation long past the point of diminishing pedagogical return.

• Compounding Returns
• Inversion