Nothing is as exciting as an encounter with a novel mind blowing idea. I had one such encounter with a concept in Chemistry called the “Rate-Determining Step.” Sometimes called the Rate-Limiting Step (RLS). The RLS is the slowest step of a chemical reaction mechanism that determines the overall rate of the reaction. This idea that it is NOT the FASTEST step, but rather the SLOWEST step that determines the overall speed of a reaction blows my mind.
RLS has been living in my head for a few weeks now. I keep turning it over again and again. I research it and re-research it and I just can’t get over it. LibreTexts explains this concept by analogy. Imagine a funnel. It has a wide mouth and a narrow neck. Even if you were to deliver water via a firetruck hose, the width of the neck of the funnel will always restrict how much water flows through.
We were taught in school that a reaction is a process by which reactants on one side undergo a transformation to become products on the other. Take nitrogen dioxide reacting with carbon monoxide for example. That equation looks like this:
NO2 + CO → NO + CO2
From the equation, you might assume that this reaction happens in a single step but it is not so. Chemists, after using the experimental rate law, deduced that this is in fact a multistep reaction. Basically, the hypothesised overall rate of the above reaction did not match the rate observed during experiments. The experimental rate was much slower. This suggested that this was not an elementary reaction and probably involved multiple steps; of which one was the rate limiting step.
Through sheer ingenuity, it was shown that there is a slow intermediate step that sees the nitrogen dioxide molecules reacting between themselves to produce nitrogen monoxide (NO) and the nitrate ion (NO-3). The nitrate ion is the reactant that ultimately combines with the carbon monoxide (CO) to produce the final products as shown on the right side of the equation.
This is the fascination. We thought that the above equation would progress at a certain rate, say “x”. But through experiment, we found that the reaction actually advanced much slower than x. Why? Because something was slowing it down. The intermediate step - the rate limiting step!
Could this law of nature serve as a warning? Are there rate-limiters in human life? Is there something or someone in your business that is slowing down everything for you. Maybe you apply yourself as far as you can and feel that your progress is not commensurate with your effort. Perhaps you think you should have attained this, that and the other by now. Maybe this wasn’t the plan. Maybe, according to you, you should be a higher earner. Maybe you ought to be happier. But you’re neither!
What’s the slowest process in your system that is delaying everything else? Is there a weak link? Is there a toxic member in the camp? In the work place, who is slowing everything down? Can they be assisted? Can they be circumvented?
I just can’t help but to take this concept this far. I keep thinking what is the slowest “step” in my social life that is determining how my relationships progress. What about my money? What are the elements that slow me down in my endeavours to attain financial freedom? How fast would I be going if I never worried for a day ukuthi bantu bazothini? How different would my life be? Would it be better; would it be worse? I want to take this on. I want to log my steps and observe them under the microscope in the hopes that I can identify and purge the bottlenecks. I want to be as efficient with my energy as George Orwell was with his words.
Whew😅! I’m glad that’s off my chest. If you read everything up to this sentence, you’re a real one. Thank you. Here’s a spud 👊🏾.
Good read ..