Wednesday, August 19, 2009

80/20

Why is it there are some geniuses out there that proved this 80/20 rule? its severely irritating because its highly accurate.

Be it in the computing world, economical world, or social world, its a likely that the 80/20 rule applies. You haven't heard of the 80/20 proportion? Ok then, let me explain.

Its called the Pareto Principle on which that 80% of something is due to the remaining 20%. Still don't get me? Just imagine in project management concepts you understand that the 1st and last 10% of the project will cost more and take the most time than the middle 80% of development. In Sales, 80% of your revenue usually comes from 20% of your clients. In Social Media, 80% of Advertisements respond to 20% of actual sales.

It also applies to people where 80% of working adults tend to spend 1st and save later and the remaining 20% always saves 1st and spend later. It's difficult to categorize these groups as it varies according to countries and regions, some people just need to spend to make a living, and some people (usually the capable) will live and think of making a saving.

Anyways it further boils down to Mr Cyril Northcote Parkinson's theory on which stands "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."
He was an Economist by trade and therefore understood the concept of supply and demand. he stated that:
"The demand upon a resource tends to expand to match the supply of the resource."

An extension is often added to this, stating that:

"the reverse is not true."

But in the reality of things the force of Human WillPower can far surpass expectations of any theory and prove even these geniuses wrong. But the ratio of the people overcoming this principle would probably be 20% rather than 80%.

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