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What is the Pareto Distribution?



It's not uncommon nowadays to hear about the 80-20 rule. Left unexplained, though, it's hard to see how it would apply to your situation, or any situation for that matter. The Pareto distribution can be used to explain both human activities and natural phenomena, which is, in fact, how it was discovered, as Vilfredo Pareto noticed that 80% of the pea pods in his garden came from 20% of his plants. 

Economist. Gardener. 


How does this distribution work? In order to avoid getting into the more complicated mathematical aspect, I'll explain it as such: The square root of the input in any given system generally produces 50% of the output, and in that half of the output, if you take the square root of the input, you will find, again, that it produces half of that output.

If you have 10,000 employees, 100 of them do 50% of the output, and even then, 25% of the total output is made by the best 10 of those hundred employees. This means that the bigger the input gets, the bigger the redundancy is and we tend to lose track of those who are actually of any value, and eventually you get big systems that depend on a few key outputs to actually exist. Incompetence grows exponentially, and competence grows in a linear fashion.

You'll usually find this in any system where success is based on both a variety of factors, and building upon previous succes. So is the principle limited to the accumulation of wealth, or the distribution of land? No, in fact, there are more than quite a few notorious examples where it's clearly observed. 


  • Dr. Joseph Juran, while working in quality control in the 1940's, found that 80% of issues came from 20% of defects. 
  • It is a common rule told in marketing that 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your customers. 
  • The first 20% of input in a project yields 80% of its results. 
  • 1989, world Gross Domestic Product, the richest 20% had 82.7% of the world's wealth. 
  • In computer science and engineering control theory, for energy converters and such, the Pareto Principle is used for optimization. 
  • Microsoft noticed that 80% of issues with their computers were rid of by fixing 20% of their bugs. 
  • 20% of athletes participate in 80% of the biggest competitions, and of those, 20% win 80% of the awards. 
  • In training, 20% of the exercise tends to have 80% of the impact on your body (This is why high intensity interval training is so effective).
  • In workplace injuries, 20% of hazards account for 80% of injuries.
  • 20% of patients in the U.S. use 80% of the resources. 
  • According to OkCupid's research, women find 80% of men below average looking

Using the principle to your advantage



This is all about optimization. 

Are you the owner of a company with way too many employees who aren't doing anything? Now you know what to look for. 

Are your workouts getting too long, and you're seeing minimal results? Perhaps you should try doing intervals. 

Are your sales too low? Focus on your clients which consume the most, and reward your best sellers who are moving your products around in the first place. 

This also means that you don't need to be making a high effort all of the time in whichever goal you're pursuing. Of course, you need to finish what you start, but if you can keep your methods as efficient as possible, then you can reach your goals sooner and expand your capacity for output. 

There are books that help you examine your entire life so you can use the Pareto distribution to reorganize your life, and be as efficient as possible, to the point that you can greatly reduce the time that you need to work. The most successful of these is probably The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris. It's not magic, but if you can use it, it'll do.

Further Reading: 

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