another ratio: 80/20

after a meeting some days back, a friend asked me "havent you heard of the 80/20 rule?"

yes i have.

the 80/20:

"In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. In the late 1940s, Dr. Joseph M. Juran inaccurately attributed the 80/20 Rule to Pareto, calling it Pareto's Principle.

After Pareto made his observation and created his formula, many others observed similar phenomena in their own areas of expertise. Quality Management pioneer, Dr. Joseph Juran, working in the US in the 1930s and 40s recognized a universal principle he called the "vital few and trivial many"

What It Means

The 80/20 Rule means that in anything a few (20 percent) are vital and many(80 percent) are trivial. Project Managers know that 20 percent of the work (the first 10 percent and the last 10 percent) consume 80 percent of your time and resources.

The value of the Pareto Principle for a manager is that it reminds you to focus on the 20 percent that matters. Of the things you do during your day, only 20 percent really matter. Those 20 percent produce 80 percent of your results."

what my colig was trying to say was..learn to work smart lah...why fuss so much?
just focus on the 20% that produces the result.

so that the remaining 80% of your time, can be devoted to the more enjoyable activites of daily living...

remember: less effort for more results = Good.

the trick is of coz, to figure out that 20% that matters.