The 80/20 Principle - Richard Koch - Part 5

The 80/20 Principle - Richard Koch

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 90

  March 31, 2017 

Book 28 - The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less
by Richard Koch (2008)
 Part 5 - pages 207-255
Reading Time - 1 hour

The last few chapters and I'm still looking for value in this book. A chapter on how to money begets money thanks to compounding interest and investing. "To succeed you must aim for the top". I don't agree with that statement and maybe that's why I find this book such a hard slog.

He also makes an attempt to shoe-horn Happiness into the 80/20 principle. While I didn't find a lot of correlation with his ideas and the 80/20 principle, he did have some interesting ideas on happiness. We have control over our happiness - it's not cast in stone based on our childhood, history or genetics. There is a delicate balance between what we think and feel on a daily basis and our physical and mental health. This resonates for me based on my own experience. The author notes that we are free o change the way we in which we think and act. If we change the we think, then we change the way that we feel. We are always telling stories about ourselves and life... so why not tell positive stories rather than negative ones.

The last chapter is an add-on to this edition in which the author looks at some criticisms of the first edition and how people have used the principle. I did see the point in this chapter. Really seemed like an afterthought.

On the whole... I wouldn't read this book again, unless I was a business person interested in clawing my way to the top. But I'm not... so I won't.

On another note... 28 books in 3 months is a pretty good rate. I have gotten a bit behind the 8-ball here... and am trying to catch up with the present (April 7).

The 80/20 Principle - Richard Koch - Part 4

The 80/20 Principle - Richard Koch

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 89

  March 30, 2017 

Book 28 - The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less
by Richard Koch (2008)
 Part 4 - pages 166-206
Reading Time - 1 hour

Here's a tidbit to get ahead in life. Focus on what you find easy and enjoy. Pursue the things where you are amazingly better than anyone else that that you enjoy the most. There's a theme like this that runs through the book - how to get ahead. How to become one of rich, ambitious elite. Given that this book was originally written in the 1990s and rejigged in 2008... it seems a bit out of date to me.

There was an interesting idea originally presented by a commander in the German Officer Corps. It's a chart based on Industriousness and Intelligence.

In terms of evaluating officer material, it is kind of eye-opening. On the other hand, the author of the 80/20 book tweaked the descriptions a bit. Stupid and Lazy were to be left alone. Stupid and Hard Working were to be fired. Lazy and Intelligent were General material. Intelligent and Hard Working were Staff Officer material.

I look at this and think of other organizations that this might apply to... like the Church and it's seminarians. Except I don't think the Stupid and Hard Working ones are eliminated... interesting though.

The author goes into a long chapter on how to achieve career success... find your niche and develop that. It's all about making money in the shortest amount of time as possible. Which is nice... but I'm not really wanting to be one of those elite super-achievers who hold 80% of the world's wealth. I'm thinking again, that this book is dated and out of touch with reality and the Millenials.

The 80/20 Principle - Richard Koch - Part 3

The 80/20 Principle - Richard Koch

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 88

  March 29, 2017 

Book 28 - The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less
by Richard Koch (2008)
 Part 3 - pages 115-165
Reading Time - 1 hour

More business applications of this principle. An interesting idea... a few employees are priceless and worth more than their weight in gold. Many employees add a bit of value to an organization. Some employees actually subtract value from an organization. The thing is, it's not as simple as firing the slackers and hiring more stars. Sometimes you have to look and see if there is potential in the slackers.

The last couple of chapters in this section take a look at the notions of freedom and time. The time chapter was the one I was most looking forward to. It puts out the idea that most of our achievements happen in 20% of our day. We don't need to organize or manage our time better... we simply need to alter how we spend our time. Change the way we think about time. Because we all have a tonne of time, we just don't use it efficiently. I have to say... I didn't find this chapter as helpful as I expected. It's a bit vague I guess and I was left feeling short-changed somehow. I didn't really get a lot of takeaways from it. But... tempted as I am to toss this book back in the library hatch... I am going to complete it!

The 80/20 Principle - Richard Koch - Part 2

The 80/20 Principle - Richard Koch

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 87

  March 28, 2017 

Book 28 - The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less
by Richard Koch (2008)
 Part 2 - pages 58-114
Reading Time - 1 hour

I think I started this book months ago and don't remember finishing it. This time, I am determined to slog through. The author goes into how the 80/20 principle applies to sales. Which, I have to say, is very boring, at least for me. On the other hand, I did glean a little nugget of value from this section - simple is where it's at. Simple = huge cost savings. Waste thrives on complexity. This makes sense to me. Not quite sure how to apply it to my own life at this point. I could say that a complicated life is going to have a lot of wasted time in there, I guess. Maybe... on to the next piece of this book.

The 80/20 Principle - Richard Koch - Part 1

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 86

  March 27, 2017 

Book 28 - The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less
by Richard Koch (2008)
 Part 1 - pages 1-57
Reading Time - 1 hour

I'm pretty sure I've read this book before but, again, I was browsing the library shelves and it jumped out at me. It's still an interesting read and a bit of a procrastination. Betty Friedan's book, The Feminine Mystique, arrived via the library and it is a substantial and weighty book which, judging by the number of pages and density of text, might take me 2 weeks to read! So, a bit of light reading before I dive into that.

The 80/20 principle was originally developed by an Italian, Pareto, in 1897. It's a pretty simple idea that basically says things are unbalanced. For example, 20% of people own 80% of the wealth. Or, 20% of a company's products generate 80% of its revenue/profits. The numbers don't have to be 80/20... they could also be 70/20 or 80/10 or 90/15. The idea is that things aren't 50/50, at least not naturally.

The 80/20 rule has been applied by corporations, economists and computer programmers for decades. The author suggests, however, that we can also use it to good effect in our own lives. If, for example, we wear 80% of our clothes, 20% of the time... why not clear out our closets (or our houses). That's a kind of simple example but... I'm looking forward to seeing where else I could use it. The idea is that if we get clear on the 20% of whatever it is that we do that generates 80% of the results, then we can either devote more resources to those activities or modify the rest of what we do to be more productive.

The author touched briefly on the idea that even a tiny bit of an edge (for an animal, or a company) means that it will eventually outperform all the others. Even a bit of an edge - being a bit faster, or a bit stronger, means that one gets more than the others. Which means that on the next go around, we'll get even more. It's this tiny edge that leads to the imbalance where some end up with 80% of the resources and others don't. Which makes me wonder at some of the other stuff I've been reading which says that income inequality is a major cause of the misery in some first world countries. In a free-market economy though, one that is not regulated, nature dictates that there will be an inequality. 10% of the people will own 99% of the wealth. Sooo... how can we counter that? Hoping that this book might lead me in that direction.

Beyond Gender - Betty Friedan - Part 2

Beyond Gender - Betty Friedan

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 85

  March 26, 2017 

Book 27 - Beyond Gender - The New Politics of Work & Family
by Betty Friedan (1997)
 Part 2 - pages 49-116
Reading Time - 1 hour

Friedan tackles a bunch of different issues in this section: affirmative action, community, family values, children. The big message is this... without jobs, people can't take care of their children or support family values. Women in the workforce is not the issue. Income inequality and job down-sizing is the issue. "They create a climate of rage, frustration and fear that fuel politics of hate." Given how the current president of the US ran his campaign, I think we can safely say that Friedan hit the nail on the head before most of us even knew it was there.

Friedan argues that politics in the US is essentially a choice between big anonymous government (think Democrats) or corporate commercial sector (think Republicans).  She says we need something else, we need a community space where citizens can meet, discuss our common problems and rediscover the language of citizenship. But if the only spaces in which we can meet our government offices, or the mall, we're kind of stuck. Where are the town halls and public squares? Good question.

If the 1960s and 1970s gave us the sexual revolution... I'm kind of wondering what the 2020's are going to give us? What sort of a revolution that puts the US on track for a society driven by citizens not by corporate lobbyists?

Beyond Gender - Betty Friedan - Part 1

Beyond Gender - Betty Friedan

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 84

  March 25, 2017 

Book 27 - Beyond Gender - The New Politics of Work & Family
by Betty Friedan (1997)
 Part 1 - pages 1-48
Reading Time - 1 hour

Yup, this is the Betty Friedan who wrote The Feminine Mystique in the 1960s. Her book helped ignite the feminist movement and gave voice to frustrated housewives everywhere (or at least in the USA). Thirty years later, she wrote another book based on her experiences.

Friedan suggests that the issue nowadays is not so much gender equality (although that is still an issue) but income inequality, or economics. She says we need a need paradigm shift, one that takes us beyond feminism or identity politics (women/men, black/white, gay/straight). We need a new way of looking at the system.

She suggests that while many women have entered the workforce, a lot of them are stuck in low-paying service jobs. Similar to some of the other feminist books I've read, Friedan notes that there are no policies on how women can combine a career and child-bearing. Australia, for example, has excellent policies that support women in the workforce.

On the other hand, Friedan notes that the rage of some feminists (down with men) has been replaced by the rage of white middle-aged men who feel that they have been down-sized in large part because women have entered the workforce. In reality, the issue, according to Friedan is a job crisis due to down-sizing and profit-chasing by corporations. Fewer jobs but employees working longer hours. She specifically notes the 1994 elections where the unhappy middle class made their feelings known. Apparently their targets of rage were immigrants, welfare moms and gays. Kind of weird when you consider the US presidential campaign of 2016. Same old, same old?

Friedan says that we need to look at different options: flexible work weeks, job sharing, benefits/hour (not per person), shorter work week, tax deductions for volunteering. All of these are in place somewhere in the world and work well. But there seems to be a corporate resistance in the US to anything that might reduce profits. Better to have employees work 80 hour work weeks apparently.

It is interesting to read one of the big feminist writers and see her (23 years ago) putting her finger on the issue that is still the issue. The growing income gap between the rich and the poor, with a shrinking middle class.