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A review by drapoco
The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More with Less by Richard Koch
3.0
First of all, I got a lot of valuable thinking from reading the 80/20 principle. Even though it’s a logical train of thought but sometimes you need someone to turn on the light for you to see. That’s how I feel about the 80/20 principle.
The main take away is: Make lists and analyze which 20% is creating the most value. That’s where you need to put in the work. I choose to call the 20% Need-to-have and the 80% Nice-to-have.
It is logical that you should focus on the things that gives most value, but that doesn’t mean that you do it. This is mostly because you don’t take time to map out your doings and analyze their values before putting in the effort.
On the negative side, the last 100 pages of the 20th anniversary edition are mostly useless.
Chapter 15 revolves around happiness and begins with a critique of Aristotle which is as follows:
“Aristotle said that the goal of all human activity should be happiness. Down the ages, we haven’t much to Aristotle. Perhaps he should have told us how to be happier. He could usefully have started by analyzing the causes of happiness and unhappiness.”
This is completely wrong. Aristotle never said: “The goal of all human activity should be happiness.”. It is a paraphrase of several points in the Nicomachean Ethics in which Aristotle’s pursues what happiness is.
Even worse is that the remainder of the chapter emulates the ideas of the Nicomachean Ethics such the differences between animals and man, how to achieve a balanced life and more.
Another thing about the Happiness chapter is that Richard Koch embarks on a rant about how everybody can become happy and has a responsibility to be happy. He then follows to say that it is all about emotional intelligence and the only hinderance is: A list of the symptoms for ADHD.
Ironically approximately 20% of the world’s population has ADHD.
Anyways, all the business-oriented parts and analytical tools are great. But the things where Richard Koch tries to apply this to psychology and similar areas should have been shredded from the book. They are the 20% that produces 80% of the waste.
I think that Richard Koch knows this because as he gets lost in the weeds, he starts pulling more citations and the rambling gets cranked up.
I will recommend that you read this book, because it is good when it is good, but when it stoops it really stoops and you should definitely skip those parts.
I have a feeling that the original edition was better.
The main take away is: Make lists and analyze which 20% is creating the most value. That’s where you need to put in the work. I choose to call the 20% Need-to-have and the 80% Nice-to-have.
It is logical that you should focus on the things that gives most value, but that doesn’t mean that you do it. This is mostly because you don’t take time to map out your doings and analyze their values before putting in the effort.
On the negative side, the last 100 pages of the 20th anniversary edition are mostly useless.
Chapter 15 revolves around happiness and begins with a critique of Aristotle which is as follows:
“Aristotle said that the goal of all human activity should be happiness. Down the ages, we haven’t much to Aristotle. Perhaps he should have told us how to be happier. He could usefully have started by analyzing the causes of happiness and unhappiness.”
This is completely wrong. Aristotle never said: “The goal of all human activity should be happiness.”. It is a paraphrase of several points in the Nicomachean Ethics in which Aristotle’s pursues what happiness is.
Even worse is that the remainder of the chapter emulates the ideas of the Nicomachean Ethics such the differences between animals and man, how to achieve a balanced life and more.
Another thing about the Happiness chapter is that Richard Koch embarks on a rant about how everybody can become happy and has a responsibility to be happy. He then follows to say that it is all about emotional intelligence and the only hinderance is: A list of the symptoms for ADHD.
Ironically approximately 20% of the world’s population has ADHD.
Anyways, all the business-oriented parts and analytical tools are great. But the things where Richard Koch tries to apply this to psychology and similar areas should have been shredded from the book. They are the 20% that produces 80% of the waste.
I think that Richard Koch knows this because as he gets lost in the weeds, he starts pulling more citations and the rambling gets cranked up.
I will recommend that you read this book, because it is good when it is good, but when it stoops it really stoops and you should definitely skip those parts.
I have a feeling that the original edition was better.