80/20 and puffing up (was Re: [Sigia-l] Right Side Navigation)

[Andrew]

Hi,

I always liked listening for instances of Pareto's 80/20 principle of 
wealth distribution being misapplied to project management, bug fixes, 
the tendancy of coders to leave the hard parts to the last minute, 
audience mixes and demographics, salesperson and product performance, 
written vs. used instructions, income generating investments, and many 
others that don't immediately spring to mind.

I think that these potted arguments, cleanly delivered, lend credibility 
to the IA (and other information design/support professionals) who need 
to appear as if they are capable of making profound statements at every 
breath. I know that I have certainly used a few-too-many buzzwords in 
the past to borrow credibility in situations where I had to appear as if 
I was the answer to every troubling issue that the client had. It is 
part of some basic animal instinct to puff up and appear bigger when 
threatened, I guess.

And I know that I am not the only one that has fallen into this trap in 
the past :)

Cheers, Andrew

Listera wrote:

>Russ Unger:
>
>  
>
>>What I'm most surprised at on this list is that people are so quick to
>>pick a side and choose a solution when *we* of all people shouldn't be
>>doing that, unless we're pointing out a preference...
>>    
>>
>
>... or corporate best practices, industry standards, the 99% rule of the
>week, the fad of the month, the chart of the year, the book of the decade,
>etc. 
>
>----
>Ziya
>
>  
>