I’ve always understood it to mean that in any project or task, completing 80% of the work requires only 20% of the effort. The last 20% of the work that needs to be done is where most of the effort lies. Of course this is more like general guidance for time management and task prioritization rather than a hard-and-fast rule about how things really get done. It does help explain why so many projects are left unfinished, or end up ultimately half-assed even though everything was moving along perfectly for a lot of important milestones.
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