Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Pareto and Sports: the 80/20 Thing

Ever since I learned it, I've loved the Pareto principle, the 80/20 thing.  I particularly applied it to software, most notably back in the day when we were trying to automate deficiency payments. I think I can claim credit, or blame, for splitting payments into two categories: special and regular.  The regular ones we'd try to run as a batch, the special we'd struggle with as best we could.

Now people have discovered the 80/20 rule works for sports, specifically in things like tennis the best 20 percent of the players win 80 percent of the prizes.  See this Technology Review piece

2 comments:

bathtub reglazing nyc said...

I guess 80/20 principle applies in many fields of life.Any competitive exam results or passing percentage of a professional exam, 80/20 principle applies.I guess its rightly said that 80 percent of effects come from 20 percent of causes.

roof repair nj said...

In my opinion 80/20 principle is universally acceptable.There are only few people in every walk of life that keep on winning laurels.If you look at various sports you will come to know that trophy or prize usually changes its hand among the top 4.