Comments on: Understanding the Pareto Principle (The 80/20 Rule) http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-pareto-principle-the-8020-rule/ Learning shouldn't hurt. Let's share the insights that made difficult ideas click. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:09:06 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Alex http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-pareto-principle-the-8020-rule/#comment-262806 Alex Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:52:25 +0000 http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-pareto-principle-the-8020-rule/#comment-262806 I have 2 children and am greatly obsessed with their education. I think that Pareto principle could be greatly used in schools to compress the time needed to learn something useful. Taking even an odd example: the alphabet. Its 20% of the letters that make 80% of words. Sure you still need the rest to use the language, but the point is that you can focus firstly on the 20% of most used letters (numbers, whatever) and have kids understand the use of it. A revolutionary idea would be to have only 20% of education at school, with the rest get acquired at later stages, evenly distributed through the life. Someone needs to find out what knowledge required for the most results. I have 2 children and am greatly obsessed with their education. I think that Pareto principle could be greatly used in schools to compress the time needed to learn something useful.

Taking even an odd example: the alphabet. Its 20% of the letters that make 80% of words. Sure you still need the rest to use the language, but the point is that you can focus firstly on the 20% of most used letters (numbers, whatever) and have kids understand the use of it.

A revolutionary idea would be to have only 20% of education at school, with the rest get acquired at later stages, evenly distributed through the life.
Someone needs to find out what knowledge required for the most results.

]]> By: Judith http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-pareto-principle-the-8020-rule/#comment-262043 Judith Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:28:50 +0000 http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-pareto-principle-the-8020-rule/#comment-262043 I think you'd need 80 pieces of bread! I recently went to a dinner where we all ordered the banquet. The meals were all delivered at the other end of the table from where I sat. I'm sure 20% of the guests ate 80% of the food and I went home hungry. I still paid 100% of my share though. That certainly didn't add up for my belly! I think you’d need 80 pieces of bread!
I recently went to a dinner where we all ordered the banquet. The meals were all delivered at the other end of the table from where I sat. I’m sure 20% of the guests ate 80% of the food and I went home hungry. I still paid 100% of my share though. That certainly didn’t add up for my belly!

]]> By: Sludgie http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-pareto-principle-the-8020-rule/#comment-252389 Sludgie Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:17:16 +0000 http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-pareto-principle-the-8020-rule/#comment-252389 I need to ask a question! Since the whole principle is based on maximising time and boosting efficiency, can it be used in the following circumstance - I need to buy bread as breakfast for a 100 people, but not all of them may want it because they can get better food elsewhere, or they may want to skip breakfast. I still have to provide some bread in the end, but it would be unwise to buy a 100 pieces of bread because not everyone would want it. Would it be safe to take on the 20:80 ratio, and go on to conclude that for a 100 people, I only need 25 pieces of bread? Just wondering if the principle can be applied to this situation as well, even though its more applicable to time management. Thanks! I need to ask a question! Since the whole principle is based on maximising time and boosting efficiency, can it be used in the following circumstance – I need to buy bread as breakfast for a 100 people, but not all of them may want it because they can get better food elsewhere, or they may want to skip breakfast.

I still have to provide some bread in the end, but it would be unwise to buy a 100 pieces of bread because not everyone would want it. Would it be safe to take on the 20:80 ratio, and go on to conclude that for a 100 people, I only need 25 pieces of bread?

Just wondering if the principle can be applied to this situation as well, even though its more applicable to time management. Thanks!

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