I'm a devotee of the 80-20 principle. I pursue what interests me, but not generally to the level of mastery. I'd rather be 80% proficient at five things than fully mastering one.
I’m with you on this one. And recently I have been binge-watching the Culinary Class Wars and gaping in admiration at the talented chefs who lend their signature touch to the wildly creative dishes they make. They make me feel wanna invest more of myself into my work. I mean, I’m not quiet quitting, but I’m not actively seeking ways to stretch myself either haha
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In economics this is called the Pareto rule. 80% of the work accomplished comes from 20% of the workers. The secret is to then whittle down the other 80% as the deadwood they are. Musk used this idea at X.com when he took over. He first looked for volunteers to leave then fired whomever he thought was not in the 20%. If you have ever been a salesman, you may have experienced this when they fire the bottom 20% of the salesforce every year. This sounds harsh but it helps everyone find the niche in which they fit best.
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A point Doug Casey likes to make is that you can iterate on the Pareto Rule: i.e. you can get 80% of that 80% with 20% of that 20%.
In other words, you can accomplish 64% as much with only 4% of the effort.
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Yes, Casey often makes that point in regards to stock choices. You can also say that it applies a lot to commodity markets in respect to when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em.
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