A few semesters ago I taught a pre-computing class for freshman students
who had deficiencies, usually in mathematics, and were not ready for the
first computing class. These students were good with much potential; they
managed to do sufficiently well in high school to go to college, but still
had some poor work habits, little time management skills, short attention
spans and no test taking strategies. I thought of beginning with some
lectures and videos on study skills, note taking, etc, but they had "been
there; done that" and "that" had not caused them to change.  <p> 

However, one thing that did interest them was the Pareto Principle or the
80/20 rule. They could think of many examples of this "law", such as "20
percent of the people have 80 percent of the money", or "80 percent of
their time is spent with 20 percent of their friends".  <p>

Furthermore they would also easily think of ways to take advantage of
these observations. Some of these were severely creative. For example, one
student noted that "20 percent of a car's windshield accounts for 80
percent of what is seen" and concluded that only the driver's side of the
windshield need be cleaned! Other "Paretoisms" and strategies were equally
creative but more practical.  They were able to observe their life and
arrive at strategies to improve it.<P>

You are hereby challenged to think up a few such "Pareto-isms" and pass
them along to me; I'd like to start a collection of them. You may also
wish to suggest strategies based on them. Please email them to:<P>

   jmotil@csun.edu.
<P>
Enjoy.