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Vilfredo’s Garden

I’ll set the scene:

Country: Italy. Year: 1906. 58-year-old civil engineer, sociologist, economist, and political scientist Vilfredo Pareto is pottering around his garden. As far as we know, Pareto is simply observing and attending to various elements of greenery, when he notices something rather startling. Unbeknownst to him at the time, this revelation would go on to create a huge ripple effect – not just in the field of economics – but actual day to day affairs also.

The subject matter is peas.

Now, peas on their own are hardly a motif for scientific inquiry – no matter how banal the lead researcher may be. However, it is not the peas themselves that catch Pareto’s attention, but rather the way they are distributed. Convention dictates that there are around 5-6 peas per pod. An even distribution – no surprises there. But what about the arrangement of pods per pea plant. Can we expect a consistent ratio here as well? On the contrary, Pareto’s famous observation was that 80% of the healthy pea pods were generated by 20% of the pea plants. I’ll say it again: 20% of Pea Plants generate 80% of pea pods. Uneven.

Now, many of you may be vigorously shaking your heads at this point, thoroughly disgruntled. After all, I have just spent the last 217 words waffling on about some gentleman’s bizarre preoccupation with the cluster of vegetables growing behind his house. Honestly, for those of you who find yourselves in this camp, I don’t blame you. At least, not yet. For it might not be so evident now, but there is a reason that the work of Pareto – and this discovery in particular – was met with such thunderous applause by everyone in the scientific community. Most members were smart. Some were boring. A handful would go on to win a Nobel. An even greater handful had the capacity to sedate an insomniac by simply entering the room. The luckiest few were capable of both – for intelligence and dreariness are far from mutually exclusive. Nevertheless, they were all interested. Allow me to explain why.

First of all, forget about the peas. Forget about them. Cast them deep into the furthest recesses of your mind. Peas, peas, peas, no more. Because what Pareto was really thinking about – besides fame and fortune- was that term in statistics known as distribution. In this case, he was notably intrigued by uneven distribution. This subject served as a launchpad from which he propelled himself to contemplate many more instances of ‘unevenness’ in modern society. He quickly vaulted from the notion that ‘20% of pea plants generate 80% of p** pods to the realisation that 80% of Italy itself was owned by just 20% of its people. He looked into different industries and concluded that 80% of production came from 20% of companies. And countless other examples, no doubt.

So maybe, just maybe, our man was onto something.

Let us return to the present day. It thus transpires that Vilfredo’s golden rule has survived trial by fire. As one might expect with many a byproduct of lonely garden walks, this concept did not simply float out of existence – If anything, it is more ubiquitous than ever. Approximately 80% of road accidents are caused by 20% of drivers. 80% of air pollution is released by 20% of factories. 80% of the worst crimes are committed by 20% of the worst criminals. 20% of employees in a business are responsible for 80% of results. 20% of an exam specification makes 80% of candidates cry (except in the cases where it’s more of a 1:1 ratio 😉 )

So in case you missed the point because high school maths has left you flinching at the sight of percentages, I’ll reiterate: the 80/20 rule is all around us. A phenomenon that blankets planet Earth herself. Even at the time of conception, the principle was already deemed highly significant and aptly named after the fellow who stumbled upon it. The ‘Pareto Principle’ examines the relationship between input and output, cause and effect. A more concise generalization summing up the above examples might be as follows: 80% of results will come from just 20% of actions.

I challenge you to think about the implications here. This imbalanced relationship between inputs and outputs is prevalent on any scale – from the distribution of wealth across the globe to the human habit of wearing just a small fraction of their wardrobe, a large fraction of the time. It certainly was a powerful insight. But there’s better news. See, it’s simply not enough that we are made aware of the Pareto Principle. A persistent few readers (provided they even get this far) might argue that this is information is all rather pointless – trivia, at best. Their inner monologue screams: Who cares about some dumb intellectuals? So what if I don’t wear all the clothes I have? Why the hell does this even matter?!

To all you nonbelievers, take a deep breath. Go easy on the condescension – there are plenty of alternative forums to discuss your fancy diplomas. Listen up. What if I told you that this outwardly esoteric principle can – and will –completely change your life.

The Pareto Life

So how does one actually harness the awesome power of Vilfredo’s rule? Well, it always helps to pause a moment and consider… time. Our time – and it’s immensurable value. Time does not equate to money, it surpasses it in every way. Every second is vital. We want to spend them wisely – we are urged to spend them wisely. And this 80/20 rule can help us do exactly that. Remember, 20% of actions boast 80% of meaningful results. In this sense, every single thing you do has a discrete weightage.

For example, if you had the choice between watching 5 rather average feature films or merely one, but it was simply mind-blowing, which option would you go for? In this instance, the majority of our satisfaction comes from the minority of our actions. On a graver note, imagine that there was an accident in your family which hospitalised 2 close relatives and 10 distant ones. Say you could only visit one party – either 10 distant relatives or 2 close family members. Who would you choose? Which visit would you consider more meaningful?

Granted, these are entirely hypothetical scenarios, but the bottom line remains crystal clear. We ought to be able to recognise where we can extract the most value for our time. By ushering the Pareto Principle in our lives, we can be made more aware of how to best allocate our energy and resources -to optimize for optimal results. The only step that might be considered ‘hard’ is to actually figure out what 20% of the things in our lives make up 80% of our reason for living them. Achieving this means you can simultaneously focus on the fundamentals – the stuff that really matters – whilst cutting back on the remaining 80% that’s not worth nearly as much of our attention.

By reducing the variables to such a drastic extent, we are really underscoring our prime concerns. No further time and/or energy is wasted juggling a plethora of trifling commitments. We can decide what small percentage of actions to really prioritise, like which sections of a test are worth the most marks, or which key components of a foreign language we should hone in on in the hopes of becoming fluent. It’s a systematic, dual-step process: categorise, then declutter. Through this, we will find real purpose in the things we do. Through the power of 80/20, You and I can glean true value from the world around us.