Understanding the Pareto Principle (The 80/20 Rule). Originally, the Pareto Principle referred to ...LearnRight,NotRoteMenuHomeArticlesPopularCalculusFeedbackContactAboutNewsletterOriginally,theParetoPrinciplereferredtotheobservationthat80%ofItaly’swealthbelongedtoonly20%ofthepopulation.Moregenerally,theParetoPrincipleistheobservation(notlaw)thatmostthingsinlifearenotdistributedevenly.Itcanmeanallofthefollowingthings:20%oftheinputcreates80%oftheresult20%oftheworkersproduce80%oftheresult20%ofthecustomerscreate80%oftherevenue20%ofthebugscause80%ofthecrashes20%ofthefeaturescause80%oftheusageAndonandon…Butbecarefulwhenusingthisidea!First,there’sacommonmisconceptionthatthenumbers20and80mustaddto100—theydon’t!20%oftheworkerscouldcreate10%oftheresult.Or50%.Or80%.Or99%,oreven100%.Thinkaboutit—inagroupof100workers,20coulddoalltheworkwhiletheother80goofoff.Inthatcase,20%oftheworkersdid100%ofthework.Rememberthatthe80/20ruleisaroughguideabouttypicaldistributions.Alsorecognizethatthenumbersdon’thavetobe“20%”and“80%”exactly.Thekeypointisthatmostthingsinlife(effort,reward,output)arenotdistributedevenly–somecontributemorethanothers.LifeIsn’tFairWhatdoesitmeanwhenwesay“thingsaren’tdistributedevenly”?Thekeypointisthateachunitofwork(ortime)doesn’tcontributethesameamount.Inaperfectworld,everyemployeewouldcontributethesameamount,everybugwouldbeequallyimportant,everyfeaturewouldbeequallylovedbyusers.Planningwouldbesoeasy.Butthatisn’talwaysthecase:The80/20ruleobservesthatmostthingshaveanunequaldistribution.Outof5things,perhaps1willbe“cool”.Thatcoolthing/idea/personwillresultinmajorityoftheimpactofthegroup(thegreenline).We’dlikelifetobeliketheredline,whereeverypiececontributesequally,butthatdoesn’talwayshappen.Ofcourse,thisratiocanchange.Itcouldbe80/20,90/10,or90/20(remember,thenumbersdon’thavetoaddto100!).Thekeypointisthatmostthingsarenot1/1,whereeachunitof“input”(effort,time,labor)contributesexactlythesameamountofoutput.SoWhyIsThisUseful?TheParetoPrinciplehelpsyourealizethatthemajorityof