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The law that determines your life

Real quick - I was out of the country and had covid (☹️), so I was out for the last few weeks, but now we’re back!!!

Ever heard of the “power law” (otherwise known as the Pareto distribution), or the 80/20 rule?

It goes something like this 👇

“In NYC in 2022, the police stated that nearly a third of all shoplifting arrests in the city involved just 327 people, who collectively were arrested and rearrested more than 6,000 times.”

Or how “some 500 identifiable people account for 60-70% of all gun violence in the District of Columbia.”

This is nuts.

The power law basically refers to when a small fraction of something causes a majority of the output.

You can check out the full piece “When few do great harm” here from this account below —

Here are a few, more commonly cited examples of the power law at play in society:

• Wealth inequality: a small % of people possessing most of the wealth

• Market share: companies like Google that dominate a market. In their case, they own more than 60% of all search traffic

• Book sales: a few authors like James Patterson and J.K. Rowling who make up most book sales

But I want to lay out a few unconventional examples of how the power law seems to show up in our lives without us even noticing.

Hopefully you can look into how some of these apply to your life:

• Fitness: a small number of your total hours devoted to exercise affect the majority of your health

  • i.e. exercise for one hour, five days a week = 5 hours/168 hours per week = 3% of your total time existing every year can get you shredded - NUTS
    

• Friends: a tiny fraction of the total amount of people you know (let’s say 1-4 individuals) most likely affect a lot of your happiness - we tend to call these people “close friends”
  

• Memories: in the grand scheme of your life, only a small fraction of moments or experiences form the majority of your most significant memories. This small fraction stands out from the daily routines that fade over time. Or, in internet-speak, these are known as “core memories”.
  

• The little things = for example, the amount of happiness I get from my single morning latte cannot be measured (def causes 99% of my happiness).

• “You waste years by not being able to waste hours” (psychologist Amos Tversky) = you’ll be surprised how much time you could save yourself by just pausing and thinking (with no distractions) for a few hours on the major things in your life - why do you believe in the religion you do? Why do you spend money like you do? Why do you surround yourself with those people in your life?

I hope you find this framework on life as inspiring as I do.

Thanks for taking the Pack,

Zach

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Disclaimer: This is not financial advice or recommendation for any investment. The Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.