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80% of 80%

The 80/20 principle which states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the efforts is relatively well known. What is less known about this 80/20 principle is that it is fractal. Meaning there is an 80/20 inside the 80/20. 80% of 80% which is 64% comes from 20% of 20% which is 4%. And then another layer down, 80% of 80% of 80% which is around 50% comes from 20% of 20% of 20% which is around 1%. This means half of all the results come from only one out of the hundred things you do. Which is great. We just need to identify which 1% that is. The part that is not great is that we don't know the tasks exactly are that are the 1%. To achieve the highest outcome, therefore the best bet is to do a large number of tasks instead of doing a select few. This may sound counterproductive considering what we have seen about the 80/20 principle. But doing many small experiments instead of just a few big ones ensures that you find the ones that are the most important. The higher the number of experiments, the higher the probability of you finding the 1%.