(Verse 1) Vilfredo looked out at his garden plot, Counted every single pea pod he had got. Most of the pods were just scraping by, While a handful of peas reached up to the sky. He ran the math and he saw the score: Eighty percent of the crop in store Came from twenty percent of the greenest vines— Nature drawing out her sharpest lines. (Chorus) Oh, eighty percent of the wealth and the land, Rests in the palms of a twenty percent hand. It’s the Pareto curve, it’s a heavy-tailed slide, Where the few take the prize and the many divide! It isn’t a bell, no, it isn’t flat, That power-law slope is where the thunder is at! (Verse 2) Walk into a software shop downtown, Look at the bugs that are going around. Twenty percent of the flaws in the code Carry eighty percent of the crash and the load. Flip through a warehouse or look at sales charts: A fraction of items plays most of the parts. It shows up in earthquakes, in rivers and stars, In who reads the books and who buys all the cars. (Chorus) Oh, eighty percent of the wealth and the land, Rests in the palms of a twenty percent hand. It’s the Pareto curve, it’s a heavy-tailed slide, Where the few take the prize and the many divide! It isn’t a bell, no, it isn’t flat, That power-law slope is where the thunder is at! (Bridge) Now don’t get confused by the numbers in play, Eighty and twenty don’t have to sum straight: It could be ninety to ten, or ninety-nine to one, It’s the skew and the power before day is done. Alpha defines just how steep it will fall— A runaway winner who gathers it all. (Verse 3) So pick up your tools and prioritize neat, Focus your fire on the vital and fleet. Don't sweat every pebble along the highway, When twenty percent makes the bulk of your day! (Outro) The vital few, the trivial many... A pocket of gold and a sea of pennies. Yeah, ride that tail right off the page, Pareto’s rule on an uneven stage.
