The law of diminishing marginal returns

I recently had a bit of a debate with a technology consultant friend who knows I am big on content and detail within project planning and the contracts that support a technology deal.  We found ourselves talking about that principle of economics called the law of diminishing marginal returns.  His point was that for project owners who are in the midst of planning a new project—gathering requirements, fleshing out specifications, polling user preferences, etc.—the law of diminishing marginal returns sets in much earlier than they realize.  The resources spent during the initial planning stages produce some hefty returns.  But soon after, spending the same amount of resources again, and the next time after that, will produce smaller and smaller chunks of benefit.  When you are caught up in a planning process, it is often difficult to identify the point at which your cost-benefit curve has begun to flatten.

What my friend was saying seemed plausible, and because I did not have any evidence to the contrary, I just accepted his theory.  Then I thought of a possible consequence of his theory, and I said, “You’re not going to go out and start spreading this thought around the technology community, are you?”

Threatened evangelist

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No matter who you are and what you do today the use of a computer is vital to your success. With increasing technological advances and direct connection of the entire world through networks, the web, and various lines of communication, using computers is becoming the way of life. With all its benefits come the problems associated with it. Granted the pros out-weigh the cons, it is still evident that nothing good comes easy. That is why so much malware is constantly revealing itself through our computerized world. Malware is short for malicious software and is typically used as a catch-all term to refer to any software designed to cause damage to a single computer, server, or computer network, whether it is a virus, spyware, and or anything harmful to your computer. We all know that viruses, just as in the medicinal world, can quickly spread and evolve as it cleverly finds ways to inflict damage of some sort to any computer (most times accidental). Viruses are computer programs or scripts that attempt to spread from one file to another on a single computer and/or from one computer to another, using a variety of methods, without the knowledge and consent of the computer user. This makes it hard to predict because most users have no idea that they are sending and receiving viruses. The most significant characteristic of a virus is that it spreads itself most commonly through emails.

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These days we simply can’t live without our computers. I don’t care what your occupation may be, you probably have a computer of some sort sitting in your home or office, or both. The more modern technology now being, the laptop notebook computer. If you have not conformed to the laptop notebook computer, you will soon enough. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s all that is available soon. How much handier can you get than carrying your computer system around with you. Anywhere you choose to do some work is now available.

It wasn’t long ago that we all had the desktops. Now, don’t get me wrong, the massive desktop computers were great. They got the job done. However, now it’s hard to praise the old dinosaurs when we have the option of laptop notebook computers. These small wonders get all of the same tasks done, but without the hassle of being restricted to one specific area, or room in the house. We have achieved Internet freedom. I love the ability of being wireless and venturing to any part of my home with my laptop notebook computer in hand. After all, what’s the point of having wireless access when your computer is stuck on a desktop. It kind of defeats the purpose.

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