What is the 80/20 rule and why does it work?
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It’s not really a rule per se. It’s a pattern that we observe is certain systems. It’s not always exactly 80-20, and it’s not always true, but it’s a decent approximation of the fact that often times most of the consequences come from a minority of causes.
For example, 20% of all existing words are used in 80% of speech. So, a small number of common words like “the”, “house”, “please”, go”, “tomorrow” are used all the time. And there’s a bunch of words like “abjure”, “cacophony”, “serendipity”, “scrumptious” that get used very rarely.
Another example, 20% of people hold 80% of the wealth. So, you’ve got a minority of billionaires and millionaires that own most of the money in the world.
Or, did you ever do a school group project? If there’s a group of 5 students doing the same project, there’s always that one dude who does most of the work, others just drag along.
80% of listened songs are created by 20% of authors. So, you’ve got a small number of popular musicians that get played all the time on radios, and a lot of unpopular musicians who’s songs almost never (if ever) get played.
Or another example – 20% of work takes you 80% of the way to the final result. Let’s say you’re drawing [a house](https://i.etsystatic.com/6620142/r/il/ec583b/346222713/il_fullxfull.346222713.jpg). It takes you 30 minutes to make a full drawing. But, in the first 5 minutes, you’ll be able to draw a [rough outline](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSfkRLwKNBBb8DJnMixIfvY7aVXKnIuC8JgQg&usqp=CAU) that already looks much like a house. So, in our first 20% of work, you’ve drawn pretty much the entire house, and the next 25 minutes are spent on details like shading, coloring, reflections, background, textures.
In short, 80-20 “rule” is a reflection of the fact that life isn’t fair and that things aren’t equally distributed. Certain things are more useful than others. Certain things need more time than others. Rich get richer.
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