@AlexEN -- not only are the WAS and LBS moving targets at any given moment in time, but the revisionist lens through which the relationship is now seen by either (or both) parties clouds perceptions of temporal "reality" that much more

Oooooo! An excellent point! I forgot to put a variable, t=time, into the @JonF conditional probability equation!

That is SO DAM cool! I wonder if there is a time element here. That would be good data to have. Does anyone know -- of those who have reconciled and moved to piecing, what has been the average time of separation? That is, total T=time from D-bomb to Piecing?

I would be willing to wager that there's a temporal point on the curve where (wikipedia link) diminishing marginal returns set in.

That is, a point in time-elapsed-from-D-Bomb at which each additional Unit (Utile) of energy put into DB'ing provides a smaller and smaller marginal return.

Common sense explanation: I'm in the mood for a beer right now. (No, really, I'm in the mood for a beer -- who's got one handy?).

So I drink a beer. Ahhhhhhhhhh, that is refreshing. "When you say, 'Bud,' you've said a lot of things nobody else can say / When you say, 'Buuuuuuuud-weiser -- you've said it all!"

So I derive One Unit of pure, barley-hops-'n'-water pleasure from the King O' Beers.

And I drink another. Ahhhhhh, that is also refreshing. But not quite as refreshing as the first one -- after all, I'm not quite as thirsty. "When you say, 'Bud,' you've said a lot of things nobody dum-dee-dum / Dum-dum-dum Buuuuuuuuuuud-weiser -- dum-dum-dee-dum!"

Still, that was pretty tasty, so why not have another. Yep. Pretty good. Not as good as the first two, but still pretty dang "Dum-dum-dum Buuuuuuud... *burp* (pardon) ...weiser! Dum-dum-dee-dum *yawn*"

Well that's three already, so I might as well kill the sixer. And by number six, I'm not really deriving any pleasure out of them (though I'm likely trying to talk myself into believing I am -- "WHENYOUSHAY 'BUUUUUUD'! YOU'VE SHED A LOTTATHINGZNOBODY ELSH CAN SHAY BUD-WEEEEEIIIIIIISH...URK! [flees barcalounger for nearest porcelain deity]."

Diminishing marginal returns.

So I wonder, thanks to my BMC colleague @AlexEN. When does the payoff (in both relationship and self-improvement terms) to DB'ing start falling afoul of diminishing marginal returns?