chemotherapy analogy for PP and tinkering

[stone]

A classic example of the human desire to tinker unproductively is the history of chemotherapy treatment for NHL (a type of blood cancer).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHOP

The first successful treatment used four different drugs. Each had different unwanted effects and also attacked the tumor in different ways. Using the four together enabled the tumor to be got rid of without the patient suffering too much permanent damage.

To try and improve upon that basic treatment, subsequent modifications were made including various different extra drugs. It was believed that these 2nd and 3rd generation regimes took the basic principle to the next level giving better outcomes. A decade later, the people who developed the original treatment  did a large trial comparing the original basic treatment against the "3rd generation" treatments. The original treatment regime turned out to have better outcomes than the supposed improved methods as well as being much less expensive.

[AdamA]

A classic example of the human desire to tinker unproductively is the history of chemotherapy treatment for NHL (a type of blood cancer).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHOP

The first successful treatment used four different drugs. Each had different unwanted effects and also attacked the tumor in different ways. Using the four together enabled the tumor to be got rid of without the patient suffering too much permanent damage.

To try and improve upon that basic treatment, subsequent modifications were made including various different extra drugs. It was believed that these 2nd and 3rd generation regimes took the basic principle to the next level giving better outcomes. A decade later, the people who developed the original treatment  did a large trial comparing the original basic treatment against the "3rd generation" treatments. The original treatment regime turned out to have better outcomes than the supposed improved methods as well as being much less expensive.

This happens all the time in medicine. 

[MachineGhost]

Interesting analogy.  I can think of a number of parallels between "modern" medicine and Wall Street.  I would not lay the blame on tinker as much as greed.

MG

A classic example of the human desire to tinker unproductively is the history of chemotherapy treatment for NHL (a type of blood cancer).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHOP

The first successful treatment used four different drugs. Each had different unwanted effects and also attacked the tumor in different ways. Using the four together enabled the tumor to be got rid of without the patient suffering too much permanent damage.

To try and improve upon that basic treatment, subsequent modifications were made including various different extra drugs. It was believed that these 2nd and 3rd generation regimes took the basic principle to the next level giving better outcomes. A decade later, the people who developed the original treatment  did a large trial comparing the original basic treatment against the "3rd generation" treatments. The original treatment regime turned out to have better outcomes than the supposed improved methods as well as being much less expensive.