The Internet Pareto: 98/2

Those of us of a certain age are used to being bludgeoned with the Pareto Principle: 20% of {some cause} accounts for 80% of {some effect}. The 80/20 rule. It’s often treated as received truth.  It’s sometimes true.

I’ve been knocking around the Internet a bit, looking at all sorts of resources for the poor, unpublished novelist. (Me.) At some point, I realized that Moore’s Law (computing power doubles every 18 months) has inseminated the Pareto Principle, and ungodly spawn is the Internet reality that 98% of what’s out there is dreck. 2% is inspired, wonderful stuff. The new Pareto is 98/2.

There are absolutely marvelous apps, excellent websites for writing and so on. They exist as tantalizing possibilities, often buried under great piles of manure. (When was the last time a website was honest about the cost of what it offers?  Ever?)

Which brings me to my final realization on this subject: The amount of valuable intellectual property has probably been expanding at about the same rate since, oh, that Cro Magnon guy looked at a burning ember and thought up barbeque. I’m guessing that probably holds for writing, too. (OK, not entirely a constant rate. Blips at Aristophanes, Chaucer, Shakespeare.) The marvelous technology we have is entirely non-judgmental and allows geometric, nay, exponential expansion of the manure layer. I don’t think I’m part of it, but it looks like a 2% kind of guy (ego, be still) is going to have to have a big shovel to get noticed. Better start on that marketing plan, right?.

Author: John Rogers

I have thought of myself as a writer for most of my adult life. In 2011, I became a fiction writer full time. I studied creative writing as an English major in college. Then came family and career. I worked in finance and biotech and did a wonderful stint in Vienna. Now, I have the opportunity to use those experiences as the substrate for my stories. My first novel takes on the world of Big Data and the very timely issue of cyber war. The second uses the manipulation of financial derivatives as impetus for attempted murder during a trip from Vienna to Budapest on the Danube. I have taken writing instruction at the Cape Cod Writers Conference and from The Loft in Minneapolis. I am finding writers’ groups to be very helpful as concept editors, as well as practical advice from the published authors. I am in three such groups. I have taken writing instruction at the Cape Cod Writers Conference and from The Loft in Minneapolis. View all posts by John Rogers