How an 18th Century Italian Economist Enlightened Me on Weight Loss
Vilfredo’s rule has applications beyond economics and knowing the principle is an unfair advantage.
Each year, as the new year begins, I have a ritual of organizing my wardrobe: I hang all my clothes with the hangers facing one direction, away from me.
Then, whenever I wear a polo or shirt, I hang these wardrobes in a different manner, by flipping the hanger around so that its opening faces towards me. This way, I can easily keep track of which clothes I’ve worn throughout the year.
Here’s what happens every end of the year, a certain amount of wardrobe is used, and most, is not.
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Being privy to this knowledge has led me to vacuum our house in an unconventional manner. In other words, I don’t distribute the vacuuming evenly. Specifically, our vacuum cleaner tends to pass by the entrance door more frequently than the area where the TV is situated.
Why?
Since the entrance is the most heavily trafficked area in the house, it makes sense to clean the area more often.
To quantify the traffic through a doorway, consider that if the doorway is used eighty percent of the time, then eighty percent of the cleaning efforts should be focused on that area.
You may have heard of the 80/20 rule.
This is known as the Pareto Rule.
Pareto, an Italian economist, noted two centuries ago that 20 percent of the wealthiest Italians possessed 80 percent of the country’s wealth. Moreover, the startling reality is that the remaining 20 percent of the wealth is distributed among the other 80 percent of the population, who are not wealthy.
The harsh reality is striking. You and I likely belong to the middle 80% of the population that competes for 20% of the wealth. Currently, wealth distribution is heavily skewed; perhaps the ultra-wealthy, the top 1% of the population, own 99% of the world’s wealth.
But that’s a different story to tell in a different day.
My First Skirmish with the Pareto Rule
When I first encountered this concept, I was a young engineer at a Japanese company called NEC. The Japanese engineers mentored me on the principle and the application of the Pareto diagram to identify which part of the problem warranted the most attention. At that time, we faced an issue with gold plating on printed circuit boards. Gold plating was the final step in the production of printed circuit boards. Errors or defects in this process might only represent 1% of the entire process, but the cost of these errors could account for 90% of the total processing cost. Why? Cause gold is gold. It’s expensive.
The engineers advised me to dedicate 90% of my efforts to resolving the gold plating issue, which constituted merely 1% of the errors.
It ignited a passion within me to apply the Pareto Principle to every problem.
The Pareto rule is everywhere.
Reflecting on the end of the year, it’s evident that I utilize merely 20% of my wardrobe, leaving the remaining 80% untouched. It’s a common practice for me to consider donating this unused portion of my clothing as the year concludes.
Understanding that the Pareto principle can be applied to problem analysis has prompted me to always prepare an agenda for meetings. Without it, it appears that 80% of the meeting time is unproductive, with only 20% yielding productivity.
I had a conversation with a salesperson earlier, and I mentioned that an individual from a certain organization is a potential lead. He later admitted that even if he secures the account, it wouldn’t be a significant one that would substantially increase his sales.
He learned to concentrate his time, energy, and resources on the top 20% of his accounts that generate 80% of the sales cause he knows that the remaining 20% of sales are distributed among the smaller 80% of accounts.
Pareto rules.
The Rule in Weight Loss.
The late and esteemed Kobe Bryant was renowned for his Mamba Mentality, which I believe he leveraged to his psychological advantage.
Applying psychology in weight loss — or any challenge — can be crucial.
Psychology accounts for 80% of the battle, with the remaining 20% being strategy.
Without a resilient mindset, one is likely to give up. It’s common to see children start playing soccer or basketball with high enthusiasm, only to abandon the sport later due to an unanticipated psychological strain as the journey becomes more challenging.
Being psychologically prepared is essential.
The first thing of business in weight loss is asking yourself, “why are you doing what you’re doing?”.
It should be a straightforward question but it’s not. Ask it seven times. In my previous post, I outlined how to ask this question. Not sexy but essential.
