The Art of Clean Code

2 The 80/20 Principle

In this chapter, you’ll learn about the profound impact of the 80/20 principle on your life as a programmer. It has many names, including the Pareto principle, named after its discoverer Vilfredo Pareto. So, how does the principle work, and why should you care? The 80/20 principle refers to the idea that a majority of effects (80 percent) come from a minority of causes (20 percent). It shows you a path to achieve many more results as a professional coder by focusing your efforts on a few important things and ignoring the many things that hardly move the needle.

80/20 Principle Basics

The principle says that the majority ...