2625: Return Maxing

Work harder.

Everybody tells you to work harder.

Grind more, save more, exercise more, learn more, hustle more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more.

Ugh.

What if more isn't better? What if there's a point where more actually produces less? You already know this, but it's called diminishing returns.

And understanding that might be one of the most valuable skills that one can ever develop, because life isn't about maximizing effort, it's about maximizing return.

Economics has understand this law of diminishing returns for hundreds of years.

Imagine hiring workers to harvest apples.

First worker doubles production, second almost doubles it again, the third helps, the fourth helps a little.

But eventually, you have too many people climbing over each other to harvest not enough apples.

So output actually ends up falling.

So the problem wasn't effort, it was excess.

More input, less output, and you can find that principle existing absolutely everywhere.

But the opposite is, of course, also true because zero investment produces zero return.

Never exercising is going to keep you weak.

Never investing is going to leave you broke, and never making phone calls keeps your calendar empty.

Never having difficult conversations, that's going to destroy relationships.

So too little is just as destructive as too much.

Life isn't simply about avoiding diminishing returns, it's finding optimal returns, the idea that I call return maxing.

So instead of asking, "How can I do more?" Ask, "Where does my next unit of effort create the greatest return?" And that's what return maxing is.