law of diminishing returns
Gains eventually shrink
The law of diminishing returns holds that adding more of one input to a fixed process eventually yields smaller and smaller gains.
A farmer adding fertilizer sees big improvements at first, then modest ones, then negligible ones—and eventually harm.
The principle extends beyond economics: I've hit the law of diminishing returns with this project—another hour of work barely improves it.
- outputWhat something generates
- inputData received for processing
- marginalBarely adequate
- lawBinding principle or regulation
- economicsScience of resource allocation
law of supply · productivity · law of nature · inflection point · overinvestment · bottleneck · efficiency · capacity utilization · opportunity cost · utility · slow · plateau · hitting a wall · spinning your wheels · resources · trade-offs · optimization · labor
law of diminishing returnseconomies of scale
Cost advantages from size
network effects · virtuous cycle · snowball effect · exponential growth · multiplier effect
law of diminishing returnssustainable growth
Continuable long-term expansion
compound interest · Moore's Law · geometric progression · runaway growth · path dependence
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