http://management.about.com/cs/generalmanagement/a/Pareto081202.htmI asked a real smart fella a question one day, & he looked at me kinda funny & said "Ill get back to ya on that." HE had to go ask someone he knew,, I had asked him about something Id been toying with, trying to come up with some general rule of efficiency, because I tended ( & still do, in spite of knowing better) to pay too much attention to detail.
BUT,, heres a bit of what I learned about 30 years ago.
Example, Boss tells ya "Sweep the warehouse", well,, you grab the broom & run it down the walkways between stuff stacked, or, you get the little broom & go get the dust in the corners & between the walls & the ends of the rows of stuff stacked,, YOull spend 80% of the time on the little stuff & 20% on running the broom down the main walkways,,so, dont mess with the corners, Hit the main parts & go on,
NOTE,, there are some places where the rule of 80/20 should not be applied., I do not want a neuro surgeon who applies this rule.
"Well,, I got your hand put back on & a coupla the fingers hooked up, "
Anyway, apparently, this 80/20 thing goes wide & deep into the world,
into social , political & economic arenas.
I think also we can see that some areas of our world have gotten out of balance,