the Law of Diminishing Returns

Over the past year, I have found it increasingly difficult to design and implement experiments. I am a student in the 5th year of a PhD program studying Hepatitis delta virus RNA editing, and frankly, my research fervor is waning. Why is this? And how could I go about waxing my scientific ingenuity?

A friend recently introduced me to the concept of diminishing returns. She spoke of it in an economic sense, but flavored the explanation with the sweetness of strawberries. She proposed: You eat one piece of strawberry pie. It tastes good and satisfies your sugar craving, right? What about if you eat two pieces? Does this second piece further satisfy your craving? The third piece? Fourth? Fifth? According to the law of diminishing returns, more input (i.e. # of pie pieces) results in less output (pie satiation).

Here, I have taken the liberty of applying the law of diminishing returns to my waning intellectual satisfaction in grad school. When I first started in the PhD program, knowledge acquisition in classes, clubs, lectures, and through individual mentorship both exhilarated and titillated my intellectual eagerness. Midway through the program my synapses tired but I was able to relieve my ennui by embracing teaching. And now, as I am faced with the same stimuli as four years prior, I am gaining less and less satisfaction from a typical day at the lab. My mind is bored. And I need an escape.

So let’s look at our pie example for a solution to decreased satisfaction. How can one avoid jading on a fourth piece of pie? Can it be made enticing by replacing the strawberries with cherries or apples, or by serving it with a glass of milk? Likewise, could the last year of a PhD be made more exciting by adding new classes or by implementing new variations on the scientific theme?

In my case, I am convinced that I need a new flavor of pie. I like strawberry pie but the fruit seeds get caught in my teeth. Science still drives me but I need an escape from test tubes and lab coats. So now the question becomes: what new variable should be introduced to cure my intellectual boredom?

If there was only an economic concept to determine this…