80/20 rule
// May 2nd, 2007 // Theories
I’m a big fan of the 80/20 rule (also known as Pareto’s principle). I imagine for the creator it went a little bit like this:
Pareto: “I’ve had this really great idea”
Pareto’s friend: “Oh yeah right, like the last great idea of yours that nearly gave me scurvy”
Pareto: “The theory was sound, but anyway this one is a winner….
I call it the 80/20 rule. Basically you can achieve 80% of what your doing, with only 20% effort. The other 20% will take 80% of your time.”
Pareto’s friend: “Sounds logical. I like it. Shall we go play highwaymen?”
Pareto: “But hang on there’s more to it than that.”
Pareto’s friend: “Nah its cool, i got it.”
I imagine it a little like this for all great ideas, they’re so great you instantly can’t remember not knowing them. They give you that warm snuggly safe feeling you get when you just know something and that’s one less thing you have to waste valuable mental cycle’s pondering. Anyway I like to ponder so I’ve been applying 80/20 to everyday life.
I’m certain that we all have a base level of happiness. It can be shaken by a major event, in the same way a house can be destroyed by a hurricane, but the rest of the time its fairly static give or take some dry rot. That baselevel happiness I think represents….wait for it….80% of our possible happiness, and is achieved by approx 20% of effort, shock, shock horror. What does that 20% effort/80% happiness consist of?
- getting to sleep in something resembling a bed
- enough money for some grub and a cheeky
- free will, or at least the illusion of free will/freedom
- family, something resembling friends (and no, myspace doesnt count)
Obviously hitting this fairly low benchmark will require more effort in certain places than in others, depending on the cost of living. Cardboard boxes in the park command 250gbp a month in London, so you have to work harder to hit that benchmark even when you factor in increased wages.
So in theory we should all have 80% effort to devote to increasing that happiness. The problem is that we have a little thing called employment. Employment takes the liberty of 80% of our time, delivering anywhere from 0.01-20% of our happiness. In my mind it can’t deliver more, because there is no more spare happiness available above that benchmark.
Thats ridiculous, I love my job, I love it everyday and I dont just want to survive, I want a real bed not something resembling one.
Ah, this I think is the illusion of not knowing. Because its been so long since we just dropped to that benchmark level we have no real idea how much extra happiness we get for the extra time we lose doing all those things we dont want, to earn money we probably dont need, in order to do/buy/have things that contribute to that 20%. Its human nature to prefer to drop from a 6 to a 5 than a 10 to a 7 even if the latter leaves you higher. Its easier to pass on something you’ve never had, than give up something once you’ve had it.
Pt.2 of this one coming sometime in the future, maybe…
Possibly related, hopefully entertaining other posts:
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Christian
