Not ordinarily known for the sagacity of his advice, my older brother, Russ, believes it's the quantity of the advice that matters, not the quality. He famously told young me that 1) there was no such profession as technical writing and that I would end up dealing drugs in the gutter, and 2) my first computer was an unforgivably stupid waste of money. Fortunately for all I now employ, by then I'd determined that Russ might just be a bit thick.
Nevertheless, he did once offer me exactly one brilliant piece of advice.
I was entering high school, and by that time he was well into dental school. He grabbed my notebook out of my hands and drew a graph representing the sum of what he'd learned in high school.
My god, did this ever prove true in most of life. Russ had introduced me to the concept of the point of diminishing returns. Of course, he called it the "retard line" that only the mentally deficient would cross, but the concept was the same.
I think about this chart all the time. Only the x-axis labels change as I get older. I thought of it just the other day, in the context of relationships. In honor of the chart's legacy, I've decided to dedicate this entire week to charts I wish my brother had drawn me. I'll add them to this post so the context is preserved.
September 4, 2013
September 5, 2013
September 6, 2013
September 10, 2013
September 11, 2013
September 11, 2013
Final charts!
