🤘 diminishing returns


daily

It can be discouraging, trying to innovate in a mature field like medical technology.

Think of progress as a circle.

Every new innovation adds a little bit to the circumference of the circle.

At first, these innovations have a huge relative impact on the total area of the circle. The result of every contribution is easy to see as the circle grows. But as the circle gets bigger, the relative impact of each contribution is diminished. Your contribution is proportionately smaller and harder to see.

That being said, if we carry the analogy forward here, your contribution would have a greater absolute influence on the area of a large circle (a mature field) than a small circle (a new field).

It’s tempting to focus on highly visible innovations. The ones that double the area of the circle.

But absolute progress comes from the thousands of contributions that follow.

If you’re working on one of those, you’re doing the important part.

© 2024 Clark Teeple