More snow fell last night. I got up early. It was still dark and outside it was 10°F.
I needed to shovel a portion of the driveway. But I didn’t want to go to the trouble of gassing up my Toro snowblower. That would require trudging to the garage. Taking off my gloves in the bitter cold. Pouring the gas into the tank without spilling it on myself. And, pulling the starter cord a few times. A complicated, cold, and five-minute delay in the work.
So I grabbed my shovel and started digging and tossing snow. After 20 minutes my fingers and toes were frozen. I hadn’t made much progress.
I went inside. Had a cup of coffee. My toes and fingers thawed. The sun came up.
I decided to tackle the project again.
This time I went to the garage. Filled the Toro with gasoline. Fired it up. In a few minutes the task was done. And, done much better than my initial efforts with a shovel.
The first paper I remember writing in graduate school was on the economist Vilfredo Pareto. Even if you don’t know his work, you know the 80/20 principle derived from his research. It’s related to the Law of Least Effort. And, Occam’s Razor. And, the principle of the lever and the fulcrum.
Under certain conditions the advantage is even better than Pareto’s 80/20. Certain power laws result in a 1/99 advantage.
This morning using 99% of the power of the snowblower and 1% of the power of Greg Bunch I got a much better result than when it was just me against the snow.
I first studied Pareto in 1981. 40 years later I’m still learning.
What are you doing with a "shovel" that you could be doing with a "snowblower"?
I needed to shovel a portion of the driveway. But I didn’t want to go to the trouble of gassing up my Toro snowblower. That would require trudging to the garage. Taking off my gloves in the bitter cold. Pouring the gas into the tank without spilling it on myself. And, pulling the starter cord a few times. A complicated, cold, and five-minute delay in the work.
So I grabbed my shovel and started digging and tossing snow. After 20 minutes my fingers and toes were frozen. I hadn’t made much progress.
I went inside. Had a cup of coffee. My toes and fingers thawed. The sun came up.
I decided to tackle the project again.
This time I went to the garage. Filled the Toro with gasoline. Fired it up. In a few minutes the task was done. And, done much better than my initial efforts with a shovel.
The first paper I remember writing in graduate school was on the economist Vilfredo Pareto. Even if you don’t know his work, you know the 80/20 principle derived from his research. It’s related to the Law of Least Effort. And, Occam’s Razor. And, the principle of the lever and the fulcrum.
Under certain conditions the advantage is even better than Pareto’s 80/20. Certain power laws result in a 1/99 advantage.
This morning using 99% of the power of the snowblower and 1% of the power of Greg Bunch I got a much better result than when it was just me against the snow.
I first studied Pareto in 1981. 40 years later I’m still learning.
What are you doing with a "shovel" that you could be doing with a "snowblower"?