I donno about this. I think you are conflating posting with enjoyment. Even hit rates, which is among the predominant web metrics doesn’t necessarily correlate to enjoyment.

encouraging people to select a very narrow and specific career that they’re truly passionate about.

While this could be emotionally satisfying, IMHO, it is a risky approach. If you did this with html development in 2000, you’d have lost your job with almost no place to go. I know a few guys who are among the best at what they do, and they can’t get jobs. Diversification helps.

The base principle that I use in business is this: 20% of the projects in front of me are going to produce 80% of the results that I am after (the biggest bang for my buck).

So I spend most of my time and energy focusing on those projects. The rest is just daily grind.

This is a good topic to blog about.

~Oswegan
http://oswegan.blogspot.com

“Combine enough nonhits on the Long Tail and you’ve got a market bigger than the hits. Take books: The average Barnes & Noble carries 130,000 titles. Yet more than half of Amazon’s book sales come from outside its top 130,000 titles. Consider the implication: If the Amazon statistics are any guide, the market for books that are not even sold in the average bookstore is larger than the market for those that are ”

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html

Would this require that i have a 60,000 a year paying job at 20, because that isn’t really realistic. You won’t have a job like that until your at least 25. Right now I only make about 4,000 a year at most because I am still a college student 2nd year age 20. When i start making that kind of money should I invest 25% to catch up?

Thanks again great post.
Dan

I just wanted to say a quick thank you for this review. Normally I read your reviews and sigh, wishing I had the time to read the books you recommend. With a to-be-read shelf that’s spilling out onto the floor, though, I don’t have a lot of room to add books.

I think this book would be perfect for me at this time in my life. I’m transitioning from a freelancing career that’s been taking over my life into taking more marketing clients and running a small business blog. These are my 80 percents. I get the most joy and the most money out of those pursuits. The freelancing was great when I was only looking for supplementary household income but it’s getting to the point where it’s not worth it anymore. I think the thought-provoking nature of this book will do it’s job – provoke me to start thinking about how to apply this to my own circumstances and not give me a prefabricated life kit that I could find in dozens of other books.

As always, great post, and thank you!

Trent, I think you’re right when you say the 80/20 rule is a though provoker and not a problem solver.

If we try to use it a a problem solver, we would work at identifying the top 20%, then drop everything else, right?

Problem is, so much of the 80% is non-separable. It comes with the turf. It can’t be eliminated or even diminished. Just has to be done.

Can’t get an appointment if you don’t cold-call 50 prospects (suspects?). But 49 calls wasted.

Can’t fix the customer’s problem machine if you don’t know how it works. But the solution is right there, on page 279 of the manual.

Can’t perform an appendectomy if you haven’t practiced on a cadaver (gruesome, but that practice didn’t save a life).

So here’s my long-winded point. A lot of that 80% is still, well, necessary. It still has to get done by someone and sometimes by noone else but you. The Pareto rule could help identify what activities to delegate, outsource or downplay (and which to emphasize), but there will always be low-value activities we all have to do, no matter how big or small our desk is.

BTW: FIRE, couldn’t agree more. Sometime in the past those dog stocks were once stars. Here in Australia we are experiencing a mining boom. But it won’t last, they never do, and for anyone without some diversity that will be a disaster. Eggs in one basket and all that.

By focusing on 20% of the stuff that gets 80% of the result, how will the remaining 20% of the result get done?
Say we have a portfolio and we focus on 20% of the stocks that bring 80% of the revenue. What do we do with the remaining 80% of the stocks that account for 20% of the revenue? Do we get rid of them?

If yes, the next time we apply the 80-20 rule to our portfolio (where we have got rid of 80% that brought in 20% of the revenues), then we shall get rid of 80% of the stocks which are in the “current top 20%”. Will this rule work when applied iteratively?
We do not think so, it will lead to a too narrow domain which will cause a disaster!