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I believe in the Pareto Principle but I believe it's inescapable. And the author says so himself, just not in these words: > Run experiments and try new things
by trabant00 6y ago
I believe in the Pareto Principle but I believe it's inescapable. And the author says so himself, just not in these words:
> Run experiments and try new things
Most if the things you will try will not produce desired effects. Sure, the more you try the more you will succeed, but that's still 20%, just of a larger overall expended energy.
- neelnanda 6y agoHey! Author of the piece here. I somewhat disagree, I think experiments are a great way to overcome wasted motion. Sure, only 20% will succeed. But there's a major asymmetry with trying new things - you can drop the failures after trying it once, but can keep doing the successes again and again. For example, if I want to find a new hobby, I should try lots of things. 80% will be boring and I can drop it after one session, but 20% could be incredibly fun, and worth doing for the rest of my life. I flesh this point out in this post: https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/33-upside-risk https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/33-upside-risk
- trabant00 6y agoIf you dedicate all your time to the 20% you found - at one time in some context - to be fun it means you don't have any more time for experimenting. And the world changes and your data is no longer relevant. There is no escaping the trial and error loop. If you could then science for example would go uninterrupted from one success to another. Or organizations would achieve 100% efficiency after some experimenting. You can see in history people, organizations, societies, etc that have tried to stick to what they found efficient at some point. But that led to rigidity and gradual loss of touch with the evolving reality, the exact opposite of what was desired.