Diminishing marginal returns...

We had a marketing class today where the professor talked about the concept of diminishing returns applying to life in general ( I don't remember the context in which he mentioned it anyway, but then, in Marketing I guess it really does not matter :-)). Coming to think of it, the law of diminishing returns is at its punishing best in any performance driven scenario. Take IIMA for example. Here we find most students braving sleepless nights and nightmarish loads in the first year to struggle to be among the top. Beyond a point, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain productivity. Often it is the case that people drop off to sleep while poring over their books. The less sleep we get and the more work we put in,the more difficult it becomes difficult to get proportionately higher grades. There are a blessed few, who manage to extract the best out of their productive time and manage to beat the law of diminishing marginal returns. But for the rest of the people, this law is a poignant reminder of our failings (ironic...me saying failings, when many people would give an eyetooth to be here and think that the privileged ones who make it to IIMA have near divine status).
But then, one of the greatest challenges in our lives is bound to be one of extracting the most of our productive time to achieve the sort of results and fame that we often dream of... But how to go about doing that? I am reminded of Lord Krishna's immortal saying here:
" Karmanyevaadhikarasthe Maaphaleshu Kadachana "
"Do your Best without expecting the fruits of your efforts " and leave the rest to God.

I have never come across a more profound statement...
Now why am I blogging without getting down to studies? Fact is, I am feeling sleeppy after a very nice dinner (They actually serve good food in the mess sometimes :-)) and thought a bit of blogging will wake me up nicely...

In fact, this exercise has been so effective that I lost sleepiness halfway thru this blog and started feeling guilty :(...so that's all for now.

Blogggin' Off
Sitan aka Rangarajan