Prompt #11: I believe that the eighty/ twenty rule that Malcolm Gladwell discusses in the novel, meaning that eighty percent of work is done by twenty percent of people, is very relatable to the real world. This 80/20 rule is known mainly as Pareto's Law. Founded by Vilfredo Pareto in 1906, the formula was established to describe the inequal distribution of wealth in Pareto's home country of Italy. He stated that 20% of the people owned 80% of the countries wealth and hence the eighty/ twenty rule was established. The 80/20 rule has been changed from its strictly economical meanings to purely mean that in anything a few (20 percent) are vital and many(80 percent) are trivial. Two modern day examples where this rule is clearly visible are in the classroom and also in athletics. In sports the eighty twenty rule could be displayed in many different ways. One example would be the salaries of players. If you look at the roster of the New York Knicks, a basketball team in the Eastern Conference of the NBA, you will find that they have had a total of 21 players this season. Between those 21 athletes the team as a whole was set to make over eighty-one million dollars. If you look at the individual player salaries though you will find that not all players make an even amount. In fact, the top four earners on the team (Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire, Andrea Bargnani, and Jose Caledron) were set to earn almost 63 million dollars alone. That's almost 77% of the teams total salary split between less that 20% of the teams players. The eighty twenty rule could also be seen in the amount of revenue a player brings to their team in say jersey sales. In 2014, approximately 68% of all revenue earned by NBA teams around the league from selling copies of player jerseys came from the sales of the jerseys of just 15 players. These 15 players (Lebron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Derrick Rose, Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade, Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Blake Griffin, Russell Westbrook, Rajon Rondo, Tim Duncan, and Paul George) don't even make up 5% of the NBA's 425 players while they manage to produce massive amounts of the leagues revenue. Lebron James alone produced over 10% of the leagues overall jersey sales showing that sometimes it is even less that 20% of the people that do 80% of the producing. A third way this theory can be viewed clearly in sports is by player's in game production. This season the Cleveland Cavaliers, the second ranked team in the NBA's eastern conference, has scored 7042 points in only 68 games. Leading scorers Lebron James (1481 points), Kyrie Irving (1397 points), Kevin Love (1076 points), and JR Smith (682 points) combine for 66% of the teams total scoring. Also out of the teams total of 760 offensive rebounds Tristan Thompson alone has 241 and between him, Timofey Mosgov (171 offensive boards) and Kevin Love (126) the three account for 71% of the teams total efforts on the offensive glass between just 1/7th of the teams total roster. With 14% doing 71% of the work Pareto's rule of 80/20 might even under exaggerate how few people account for such a large percentage of the work that gets completed. The eighty/ twenty rule is also clearly visible in the classroom one easy to understand example is shown in group project situations. I can relate well to the eighty twenty rule because I've been in plenty of groups where one person, whether it be me or someone else, did virtually all the work while everyone else just put their name on the paper and took equal credit for the grade. Whether the work was split between all members of the group or if the entire thing was done by one individual, every member of the group got the same grade causing the 80% that doesn't do the work to have no punishment for their laziness, allowing them to continue to not do their work. Another example of the eighty/ twenty rule in the classroom is how 20% of students will use up 80% of a teachers time and resources. Every class has that one kid who thinks they know everything and answers every question or that one kid that always raises their hand to ask a question. That child makes up the 20%. While the other 80% relaxes and kinda coasts by in the class, this 20% shows strong signs of hard work and the want for improvement. A third classroom example of the eighty twenty rule, or Pareto's Law, is how 20% of the curriculum usually takes up about 80% of the courses final exam. For example in chemistry one of the nine units that you learn about, Stoichiometry, accounted for 72 of last years 100 question final exam in Mr. McDeermond's class. As an instructor Mr. McDeermond spent extra time teaching that unit because he knew that it would be the most important unit we took all year and while it accounted for just 11% of the entire course load, it made up 72% of the test, a prime example of Pareto's Principle. Some people would wonder how it is that the 80 percent that don't do work in the classroom get away with it and the answer to this question is simple. Unless they are pushed by their teacher or professor to work harder on their own they will continue to be dependent on other students for their success in the classroom, whether it be relying on other people to do their projects or copying on a test, the students continue to receive the same grades as their hardworking peers. In order to stop the unequal distribution of work in the classroom teachers would be forced to assign individual assignments or to grade students based on classroom participation. This would cause these eighty percent to either get involved or would leave them behind causing them to fail. The only way to end the 80/20 rule would be to punish the 80 percent of students for their laziness, causing them to strive to be more like the other 20 percent. In conclusion, the 80/20 rule is everywhere in this world whether it be the salaries of our favorite athletes, the spread of wealth in 20th century Italy, or even the amount of questions on a final exam over a specific unit. The eighty twenty rule helps us to better visualize why things are the way that they are and it causes us to identify problems in the distribution of things and attempt to fix them. While sometimes the unequal distribution of wealth and workload is fair, other times it isn't, and identifying the issue with Pareto's principle is the first step to fixing the problem.

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