You've probably heard some variation on the 80/20 rule, such as "20% of the workers do 80% of the work", or "20% of the population causes 80% of the crime". Ever wonder if there's any factual basis for such claims?
 
Well, there is. It's called the Pareto Principle, and I've stumbled across this easy-to-grasp explanation from one of my favorite YouTube channels, VSauce. This video explains Zipf's Law, which addresses word usage and is a subset of the Pareto Principle.
 
That in turn led me to other related videos (type "Pareto Principle" in the search box). And that ultimately led me to this one from recordingrevolution.com, in which the principle is applied to mixing. 
 
All this began three hours ago with jamesg1213's post asking if YouTube was down. It occurred to me that I'd been wondering what the most-used word in the English language is...been stuck in a YouTube loop ever since.

.....and here I thought the 80/20 originated from Medicare coverage. I really need to have my eyes checked......I read that as the Pedro Principle.  

The Pareto principal featured heavily in the quality management course I attended before I retired.

bitflipper
I'd been wondering what the most-used word in the English language is

Bapu. Simples.

Mesh
I read that as the Pedro Principle.  

Soon to be followed by a 25.68789 paragraph of the virtures of acting what you feel, not what lines were written and palying what you feel regardless of Key, tempo, time signature or (gasp!!!) genre.
 
Oh and a sprinkling of Amon Duul 2.
 
ANd if you're unsure what I'm talking about, click on his profile and read (almoist) any juan of his recent posts. They're a mind bender.

All I know is 20 of my 80 are out of whack.

bitflipper
And that ultimately led me to this one from recordingrevolution.com, in which the principle is applied to mixing. 

I thought this was very good. Simple concept. Makes sense. I can see benefit in applying it.

Please note that only about 20% of the people who attempt to make use of this rule will accomplish much of anything.

Will or Will not?

Named after Wilfredo Pareto, I believe it was in the 1700's when he noticed that most of the land in Italy was owned by a small subset of the population, essentially rich folks. It's a remarkable turn of events that it still applies today.
 
Doctors spend 80% of their time on 20% of their patients. You spend 80% of your total recording time on 20% of the required activities, namely mixing?
 
I used to teach a QA course at a local college and the students found the Pareto Principle one of the few things that they could apply to their lives.