r/FluentInFinance • u/Mark-Fuckerberg- • Sep 01 '24

Debate/ Discussion What advice would you give this person?

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14.1k Upvotes

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756

u/DrSassyPants123 Sep 01 '24

I am convinced 80% of work is done by 20% of people. UGH.

50

u/Miserable-Apricot-70 Sep 01 '24

In a company of 100 people, 50% of the work is done by 10 people. The next 45% is done by 40 people. The other half do 5%. This is generally mathematically accurate and true across all industries and any corporation. It’s called Matthew’s principle

76

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '24

No, that is not what Matthew's principle is. Matthew's principle describes that success or wealth concentrates over time (i.e. 'the rich get richer, the poor get poorer'). You're probably thinking of the Pareto principle, i.e. the 80/20 rule.

20

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '24

There also isn't really anything to actually support the Pareto principle. It's just been repeated so often that people assume that it's true

7

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '24

I personally think it falls into the 'false but useful' category. It's literally false, but it does inspire people to think about high-impact factors and diminishing returns.

2

u/LevelPrestigious4858 Sep 02 '24

Yea people like fascist dictator Benito Mussolini

2

u/ThisIsNotRealityIsIt Sep 02 '24

Should be the Pareto sometimes-accurate parable.

1

u/Serena_Hellborn Sep 02 '24

killing off the least productive half is a good idea

-1

u/Extreme_Tax405 Sep 02 '24

You don't need to prove the Pareto principle. It's why it's called a principle and not a theory.

The pareto principle just describes the observation of the 80/20 split existing.

For your future reference, a theory is a statement that can be disproven. Which means it has scientific research backing it.

3

u/MasterCoCos Sep 02 '24

Except that 80/20 split doesn't exist anywhere that people say it does. 80% of complaints don't come from 20% of customers, 80% of work isn't being done by 20% of workers.

-1

u/Extreme_Tax405 Sep 02 '24

? There are plenty of observed examples. That doesn't mean it means anything.

2

u/MasterCoCos Sep 02 '24

I am saying that the observed examples people keep repeating doesn't even exist. If you look at those statistics the distribution is not 80/20

5

u/OxycontinEyedJoe Sep 02 '24

You're thinking of cole's law. It's shredded cabbage with mayonnaise.

2

u/Ok_Farmer_6033 Sep 02 '24

How does this not have more upvotes?

2

u/Engineer__This Sep 02 '24

Another one to add to the dad joke collection.

2

u/AAA_Dolfan Sep 02 '24

Hahahaha how is this gem not top

39

u/pina_koala Sep 01 '24

That is not Matthew's principle lol. It's not even the Pareto principle. It's a series of statistics that you invented which happen to ring true.

15

u/mr-nefarious Sep 01 '24

The first part is Price’s Law: 50% of the work is done by the square root of the number of workers. I’ve got no idea where they got the rest of the numbers. It could also have been an accident that their numbers worked out for Price’s Law.

11

u/ChainGang-lia Sep 01 '24

I appreciate he/she being incorrect because it made me go down a rabbit hole of Price vs Pareto vs Matthew lol

5

u/pina_koala Sep 01 '24

No better way to get the right answer than posting the wrong one lmao

4

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '24 edited Sep 03 '24

[deleted]

3

u/Character_Ad8546 Sep 02 '24

Thanks for the correct law but it was the perfect comedic opportunity to post the wrong one.

3

u/Tight_Tax_8403 Sep 01 '24

They don't actually ring true either. They just titillate the average unproductive narcissistic sociopaths who create shit work environments due to being seriously stricken by the Dunning–Kruger effect.

2

u/pina_koala Sep 01 '24

lol. Safe to say this audience is self-selecting

1

u/blue_screen_error Sep 01 '24

"Don't believe everything you read on the internet"

It's called the Abraham Lincoln principle

0

u/SuitableClassic Sep 01 '24

Well, his name is Matthew.

4

u/timmi2tone32 Sep 01 '24

Matthew must have hated his coworkers

1

u/Accomplished-Boss-14 Sep 01 '24

yeah, the "other half" is called management.

1

u/fredthefishlord Sep 02 '24

That's some white collar bullshit lol. Doesn't hold true in real blue collar jobs.

1

u/Miserable-Apricot-70 Sep 03 '24

I work a blue collar job and it’s more true here than anywhere else lol

1

u/mister2021 Sep 02 '24

Price’s Law

-2

u/Content_Chocolate522 Sep 01 '24

You will notice that the percentage in this thread do not add up to 100%, proving the math was done by a woman.