I have two friends, let's call them Xiao Mei and Xiao Shuai.

To others, they seem like a perfect match made in heaven.
One day, they suddenly broke up.
The reason was that Xiao Mei discovered Xiao Shuai was dating a wealthy woman.
But it’s okay,
Because during their relationship, Xiao Mei had already fully infiltrated his social circle.
His good friend Xiao Hei also had feelings for Xiao Mei.
Xiao Hei was just waiting for the right moment to take over.
This is diversification—spreading investments
by allocating funds into different assets, industries, or targets to reduce the overall risk caused by the fluctuation of a single asset.
In other words, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
And Xiao Shuai is even more ruthless—
He spends only a small amount of time on Xiao Mei to gain emotional value,
and dedicates fixed time to dating the wealthy woman in exchange for material rewards.
He doesn’t lose out in either relationship.
He allocates each unit of time to the place with the highest marginal return.
In business management, this is called a profit center—
The essence is to split different businesses into independent profit-making units,
each calculating its own revenue separately,
and allocating resources based on marginal returns—
high-return businesses get more investment,
low-return businesses are cut back or eliminated,
thus achieving resource allocation—optimal resource distribution.
Xiao Shuai and Xiao Mei no longer fantasize about finding true love,
but focus on how to ensure they don’t lose money in an environment where resources are limited and could collapse at any moment.
Although this logic seems efficient and risk-averse,
when everyone tries not to lose, true love ceases to be true love,
and the vitality of love also disappears.