Originally Posted by aquinas
Originally Posted by 22B
Originally Posted by LAF
What Zen Scanner said smile
What did Zen Scanner say? crazy

Rapidly diminishing marginal utility associated with consumption of a fixed amount of a "career" causes the gifted to require a new life focus to derive the same utility they once did when the earlier pursuit was fresh.

The Pareto reference has me confused, as Pareto efficiency generally refers to trade-offs in utility from various changes in group consumption, not at the individual level. I suspect Zen is using Pareto here in the engineering--not economics--context as a representation of an efficient frontier for the individual in terms of career choices, etc, with multidimensional trade-offs. Zen, do I understand you correctly?

The "Pareto principle" which I know from engineering, manufacturing, and agile design where 80% of the results come from 20% effort. Nicely visualized by the power curve and the bend in the knee where effort becomes more palpable.

Though Pareto efficiency (based on my three minute Wikipedia expertise) could be relevant if one were to consider a person as an economic system and facets of life as players in the system; then you are allocating time and effort amongst varous life activities. It underlines Dude's and Jon's and others' points regarding balance and effort. But I don't know much about economics.