The most important thing I learnt in the last two months, is the 80/20 rule (AKA Pareto principle). It means 80% of the results come out of 20% of the work, so focus heavily on the 20%.
I learnt this concept in my new startup, where things are extremely busy, and we have to ruthless prioritize constantly. This principle has served us greatly, as we are a scrappy startup where resources are extremely constrained.
The 80/20 rule is so influential that I start to think more about it in my investing work and daily life.
In investing, it’s astoundingly true that 80% of the gains came from 20% of all the plays. For me, most of these plays are high conviction macro trend plays, such as crypto, NFT, Cloudflare, etc. While 80% of the time, I waste my energy and efforts worrying about short term speculations. Reflecting on this, I came to understand that a key question to ask myself in investing is - is this something that will contribute to 80% of my gains? And the key question to answer this is - is this something a macro play that I have high conviction in?
In daily life, 80% of the happiness also seems to come out of 20% of the time. These could be the best movies you watched, the most important friends’ birthday parties, or the most memorable trips. These define the memories of your life. And if something disappoints you or you feel bored, take it easy - because that’s 80% of the life.