Secret to Success?
Know the 20% to produce Change!
The Pareto Principle was popularized by Joseph Juran, management consultant, based on Vilfrado Pareto, Italian consultant, observation in 1896. Succinctly it states that 80% of effort only solves 20% of the problem. Or, to put it in Shakespeare: there is usually much ado about nothing. This applies to nearly every endeavor in every field including your life and mine.
Much of one’s effort is usually dissipated in busy work that seldom accomplishes major goals or solves major problems. We could look at the United States Congress as a daily, living example of people expending 80% of your tax dollars to fix a measly 20% of the most insignificant issues in order to maximize 80% of the news coverage by reporters who barely know how to write let alone analyze politicians bizarre truth claims. Much of what is labeled as fake news is nothing more than the apparent ignorance of those who claim to be more intelligent than yourself but are not. They would do well to understand The Wizard of Oz‘s advice to the scarecrow. Having a diploma does not make one smart though it may add some credibility to one’s foolishness.
The Pharisees expended great effort to show themselves righteous; unfortunately, they were expending 80% of their effort on the minor 20% of the sin issue (Mt 23:23-24). These religious hypocrites expended 80% of their effort to tithe on the insignificant herbs of their gardens but ignored the major issues of justice, mercy and faithfulness. This 20% would have brought them understanding of the true nature of sin and salvation. Ignoring Christ’s admonition they instead removed Him and thereby condemned themselves to eternal punishment. This is true of all religions which seek to major on the outward forms while ignoring the inward changes that only come through God’s saving grace and the new nature (2Co 5:17).
The true waste in healthcare is the administrative overhead to improve the quality of patient care when in fact these rules demand the expenditure of 80% or greater of the healthcare dollar and contribute little if anything toward any patient care. It provides the illusion of quality improvement by forcing healthcare into rigid lines of treatment called standards of care that demand all patients be treated the same. Individualizing care is viewed as inferior care and opens the provider up to malpractice if not outright dismissal for not following these practice care standards. This illusion is further perpetuated via shoddy research whose sole goal is to maintain the standard of care. There is little true research into new, innovative care practices. The government’s support of its carbohydrate heavy Food Pyramid is a case in point. The emphasis on carbohydrates has precipitated the greatest epidemic of obesity and Type Two Diabetes in the world’s history! It was based on shoddy to corrupted research by people who had no knowledge of either nutrition or disease processes; i.e., Ancel Keys, Father of the Food Pyramid and the standard of cardiac care dietary advice of low fat, low meat and high carbohydrate food.
This approach can be observed in all areas of life. It was from this concentration on the nearly irrelevant 80% that gave birth to scientisms. Science could not disprove the Bible or invalidate God. Science deals with the empirical while any discussion involving God is automatically outside the empirical sphere; i.e., it is beyond science which is based on repeatability and measurability. Scientisms were introduced to bridge this gap and validate the conclusion that God does not exist. For example, Father of Modern Geology, James Hutton, rejected any notion of God and developed the doctrine of Uniformitarianism, all process continue unchanging since the beginning of the universe; a position the Bible rejected two millennium ago (2Pe 3:4-7). This led to a circular reasoning fallacy to validate the scientisms of geology and evolutionary origins for Charles Darwin built on Hutton’s uniformitarianism to develop his racist religion of the origins of life and the superiority of certain peoples over others. This gave rise to eugenics which became the practice in many countries including America and Hitler’s Germany. Eugenics segued into the ongoing abortion movement which concentrates around minority containing neighborhoods. Here, 20% of the effort was successful in 80% of the change in Western culture; but, in a negative degree.
Since science could not refute God and scientific facts needed context scientism provided a false narrative context which merely confused the issue for many people. Quickly the general population believed the myth that only the experts or scientists were qualified to understand these issues and quietly accepted these myths as truths. As these became codified in law, it became illegal to teach any alternatives to these scientisms. Try teaching anything other than evolution in public school; it is illegal. Try challenging psychology, a scientism which has the power to incarcerate a person for 72 hours without proof and is a major weapon to define criminality through profiling which the media has popularized and thus legitimized as a science. Behavior can be studied and categorized and certain responses can be elicited; this is the basis for advertising and propaganda. To say that one can understand the source of behavior, the human soul lies beyond the kin of science since the soul is not empirical and who can know it (Je 17:9)? It is the Lord who searches the heart and knows human behavior (Je 17:10).
Scientisms, and those who legitimize them, make a show of proper work and legitimacy by concentrating on the nearly worthless 80% and use 80% of the moneys to prove they are doing good works when in fact they are simply majoring on the minors to keep the general populace fooled and pocket the monies for themselves. Unfortunately, the general populace are complicit in this chicanery. They have come to believe the Lie because it helps hide their sin and negates the need for salvation (2Th 2:3-12). They willingly follow false teachers who make them feel good about themselves rather than teach the truth that could save their souls (2Ti 3:1-5; 4:3-4).
The challenge begins with looking at one’s self. What are you spending 80% of your time doing? Is it addressing the significant 20% of your needs or is it simply busy work? Postmodernism with Reflexivity and Fertile Fallacies, lies, only works because the people desire it to work. Examine yourself! Seek the truth! Live the truth!