Natural Law can be described mathematically with rigorous application of established proofs (remember High School Geometry). It can be characterized sociologically as laws that apply to everyone independent of a terrestrial governing body, i.e., The Golden Rule. I find it fascinating when both the mathematical and the sociological intersect.
Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto was a 19th-century mathematician. He felt that human dynamics were such that wealth and inequality might be defined mathematically. He set about to collect as much data as possible from as many economic systems as possible. He found that wealth is distributed as a power function during times of relative stability.
He argued that the distribution of income and wealth in all countries and times is highly skewed, with a few holding most of the wealth. He argued that all observed societies follow a regular logarithmic pattern:
log N = log A + m log x
where N is the number of people with wealth higher than x, and A and m are constants. Over the years, Pareto's Law has proved remarkably close to observed data. Regardless of the economic system, 80 percent of the wealth gravitates to 20 percent of the people. The elite have special access to each other, capital, opportunity. Some economists have postulated that radical egalitarianism that provides bureaucrats the power to redistribute wealth still maintains this same Pareto dynamic, for it is the bureaucrats who become the elite.
Cal Newport, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University and author of "Deep Work," has come to believe that our effectiveness resides in our ability to focus intensely on the right things. He argues that deep work is valuable and rare. Only 20% of any population engage in deep work. What is Deep Work? "Deep Work: Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that pushes your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate."
For many of us, distractions are the issue. Even when we know what we should be doing, we find it challenging to maintain focus. In our modern world, there are just too many opportunities for disruption of our own making. Conscious separation from "digital" tools and diversions is a complex challenge that we all recognize. You are not alone. We all chase the squirrel or the shiny object. It takes willpower, but it takes a system to break those habits and patterns, for example. One approach is a weekly internet sabbatical. Another is to schedule your internet usage daily. You might try putting it on your calendar.
In a positive application of the Law of the Vital Few, consider what you spend your most valuable hours on. For me, these hours are from 5 am to 10 am, the time of my highest mental acuity and ability to concentrate. This is the 20% of my day that produces 80% of my results.
During your golden hours, what do you work on? Aha! Another application of the 80/20 rule is in the offing, don't you think.
Warren Buffet uses the 525 approaches to establish his focus. The exercise he uses is this. Brainstorm the 25 things you would like to do right now. Keep it to one area of your life; professional. personal, relationships, etc. Now, identify the top five most impactful. Once you've done that, focus on those five and only those five. The other 20, ignore entirely. Five divided by 25 is 20%: Eureka!
Those who are the most prolific in any endeavor create 80% of the output. Those same people leverage their golden hours by doing only the most high-impact things during that timeframe. I have only recently become aware of the mathematical nature of these dynamics, which as a geek, is the type of thing that motivates me to apply them and create further proof of their truth. Perhaps I can help you in your journey to make more that means more? Let's talk sometime. A free one-hour coaching session awaits to help you sort through the chaos and gain some clarity and perspective. Click here to schedule your free session.
https://www.higher-arc.com/coaching-discovery-call-signup
Be well, dear reader.
(Photos: Vilfredo Pareto, Cal Newport, Warren Buffet)
