Why Less Is More: The Pareto Principle in a Nutshell

Boost Your Productivity by Working Less

De: Albert Elisha Oberdorfer

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

The idea of working less to achieve more sounds counter-intuitive, right?

Yet, an Italian economist by the name of Wilfredo Pareto discovered a powerful principle that says that most results result from a minority of causes. He noted an 80/20 ratio. 20 % of input causes 80% of the output. And vice versa.

If this is true—and countless studies have shown this is to be the case in all areas of life—we should do less of what doesn’t work and focus more on what does. So we can achieve more by working less.

Find out how you can apply the Pareto principles in all areas of your life by doing less, not more.

You will be amazed.
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WORKING HARD IS NOT ALWAYS THE BEST THING TO DO.
This sounds counter-intuitive.
Because we have been told that it is hard work that makes the day.
But is that so?
The answer is, “yes, and no.”
It depends.
What is, if you are busy cutting down a tree, but after a while, you find out that it’s the wrong tree.
In other words, working hard is a good thing.
But, you need to make sure that you are doing the right thing.
Because if what you are doing yields minimal results, then it is time to re-think.
And perhaps find something that yields better results.
Instead of plowing on.
Instead of doing something fundamentally flawed.
In other words, we should not mistake being busy with being productive.
Some people may be inherently lazy, but they are very smart.
If they only do things that bring them results, they are better off than people who are super diligent but are doing things that don’t bring them results.
Robert Koch poignantly puts it like this:
One of my favorite quotations comes—rather oddly perhaps—from one of the Prussian army officers called Erich von Manstein, who had this to say about his people. He said,
“There are only four types of officers. First, there are the lazy, stupid ones” Now did he suggest firing these people? Not at all. He said, “Leave them alone. They do no harm.” Because at least they are lazy. “Second, there are the hard-working, intelligent ones.” Now, they are good, obviously. They make excellent staff officers ensuring that every aspect of the plan is very carefully considered. “And third, there are the hard-working, stupid ones. Now, these people,” he said, “are a menace. They must be fired at once. They create irrelevant work for everybody. And finally, there the intelligent lazy ones. Now, these people are suited for the highest office.”
So the good general was suggesting that whether you are smart or intelligent, it is actually much better to be lazy. Is this a silly paradox?
Visualize it. Do you think that Warren Buffet is busy frantically crunching numbers at his desk?
Do you think this is what Rupert Murdoch spends his time doing? Do you imagine that Jim Clark does that?
In other words, it’s smart work that makes the day.
It’s about results. It’s not about being busy for the sake of being busy.
We need to ask ourselves the question: “Is what I am doing bringing results?”
If yes, then we should be thinking of ways to do more of what brings the results.
If the answer to this question is no, then we should be thinking of how we can stop or replace those activities altogether.
This is what the Pareto principle is all about.

MR PARETO.
The PARETO Principle is named after an Italian economist called Vilfredo Pareto.
He realized that 20 percent of people owned 80 percent of the land in Italy in his time.
Then he started looking at the pea pods in his gardens and discovered an interesting principle.
Twenty percent of the pea pods were yielding eighty percent of the peas.
And eighty percent of the pea pods were yielding only 20 percent of the peas.
Interestingly, not all the pea pods were yielding the same number of peas.
So there was a fundamental disparity.
This is what the Pareto principle is about.

ETC.