The 80/20 rule

The 80/20 Rule

Ever hear of the 80/20 rule?  It's a scary little statement with horrendously profound work and life implications.  But what is it, and what can it do for me?

My company is in a growth phase.  Every time I turn around, we've got some major project or other going.  Store opening at one location, rebranding at another, rolling out project X off at another.  With a five person IT staff, it makes for very busy days.  I work a lot with VeriFone equipment, and have recently become responsible for building new point of sale systems.  Developing the primary configuration doesn't take all that long.  I can get a Sapphire and V950 ready for a store in just a couple of hours.  From there, I almost feel like I'm 80% done.  But then I have to do the individual, line item by line item configurations that make everything work, have the fuel sell at the right grade and the right price, and store the data in the right location.  And that feels like it's only 20% of the work, but takes 80% of the time.

Hence, the idea of the 80/20 rule.  The rule is pretty simple....  the first 80% of anything you do will take 20% of your time...  the last 20% of anything you do will take 80% of your time.  In other words, getting to where we "believe" we are 80% done is a point where we are nowhere near done.  So what should we do then?  Well, if you have an idea and can get it 80% complete, roll it out and try to sell it.  Or deploy it.  Or do whatever you normally do with your projects.  Getting to 100% is a long, almost impossible task.  Getting something to 80% doesn't seem to take any time at all, and it begins a place where you can start profiting from the time expenditure. 

Video game companies make a lot to do about publishing a game "when it's done".  Well, guess what game company: it's never done.  The game is finally complete when you quit supporting the product and quit releasing patches.  Because that's all a patch is: something you forgot to fix or thought would be nice to add, but you didn't do before you sold it.  So the "when it's done" mythology is basically a call to "we're pissing around and don't feel like working 90 hours a week every week".  Either that, or they haven't got the foggiest what they are going to do and are convinced that technology and computers are the future.  Protip: Technology is a tool and a framework for the future...  it is not the future.   The future is just today with a few more bells and whistles.

Thinking comparatively towards the future, I now carry a Motorola Droid that serves as a flash light, camera, scheduler, notification system, and a phone (among other things).  Given 30 years, that new device might also be able to replicate the tools I carry.  I still carry the basic device, but what the device does and how I use it tell me whether this is the past, present, or future. 

Once again, thinking towards the future and at the past, previous to the Droid (or Blackberry), I might carry several different devices to handle each and every single different thing listed.  An iPad might serve similar purpose and merge/remove the need to carry a laptop, but it's not there yet.  Could all the devices I carry one day merge into one?  Possibly...  but it better have a much bigger or easier to use keyboard.  Complex passwords suck on phone screens.