What You Must Know about General Rules and the 80-20 Rule #8020

What's Important About "General Rules"

 A pineapple might be good to eat for most people, as a general rule, but maybe there are those who are allergic, to whom that rule would not apply.

General rules are very useful tools for our thinking, as a general rule, ha ha. That is the general rule about general rules.  By me saying "as a general rule", realize then, I am also implying that this rule does not always apply to every situation. 

So now we see the important nature of a "general" rule.  It applies, "generally speaking", or "in most cases" and perhaps as much as 80-90% of the time, but sometimes it does not apply all of the time (perhaps 10-20% of the time it may not). 

What's important is that we do not think that it will always apply, in an all-or-nothing way.  General rules do not follow an all-or-nothing way of thinking, as most things do not seem to nor should they.

General Rules and the 80-20 Rule

I dare say a general rule is closely related to an 80-20 rule, or way of thinking, that I explain in an article entitled "What is the 80-20 Rule and Why is it so Useful?" 

Again, what's important is to understand that when a general rule is declared, it is applicable in most cases, but also that it is not always so, it is not absolute.

A general rule therefore has the important characteristic that there could always be one or some (but few) exceptions. If the exceptions grow too large, then maybe the rule should not be a "general rule" or need to be re-looked.

What's Great About Declaring a General Rule?

A general rule is a useful guideline for our thinking in most situations and encounters. So it is a good way to keep ourselves congruent and consistent in our thinking and response to our environment. We should therefore know what rules fall into the category of general rules.

Rule application requires good judgment and perhaps some trust, when we determine a general rule might apply or not apply to specific situations, for specific reasons.  Yet the fact is, most rules are, or should be, general rules - while very few should be specific rules to be followed all of the time. Again, that's the general rule about general rules.

For instance, if we say that someone should not open an attachment or click on a link, we would not be wise to say this should not be done in every case. Otherwise, we might miss a legitimate attachment or link that we need for our job. So we require some judgment here.

Maybe if we don't know the sender, or were not expecting the email, the rule should probably apply. But when we are expecting a specific attachment or link at a specific time, and from a specific individual, then the general rule is, it should be ok to click.

General Rules Have Exceptions

Now, because that also is a "general rule" this means there may be an exception to this trust as a "possibility" worth entertaining in some cases. For example, if someone is a VIP in a company, maybe they should have as a rule to first have another level of verification before they click.

VIPs may require an alteration of the general rule, in their case, because they are higher risk more than the average user, and there is the potential the sender could have "spoofed" the email, or sent a fake email with a fake attachment, due to their high value. An attacker may take their time to do this, in their case, in a highly-specific way.

The point here is, and the "general rule" is (about rules) that there are almost always an exception to most rules, for one reason or another. It could involve a change of risk, politics, money, or whatever else.  Our thinking must be flexible enough to accept this and handle this.

Conditions and situations often differ in each case, and should be perceived individually, case-by-case rather that "all-or-nothing" in order to ensure the proper level of flexibility in one's thinking, in order to survive and prosper in our dynamic world.

This All Deals With Maintaining Flexibility In Our Thinking

To not remain flexible in our thinking, in this dynamic world, is like putting ourselves in our own box that we then can’t climb out of, resulting in a self-imposed limitations and self-imposed denial-of-service or denial-or-flexibility that we would otherwise need, to survive and prosper.

Maintaining flexibility in our thinking is one of the most important attributes necessary for dealing effectively with our world. Without this flexibility, we will struggle to survive and prosper.

With flexibility, we are able to bend, flex and adapt in amazing ways to not just survive, but in many cases, prosper and get ahead.   Without flexibility, we are easily broken.  I talk about this more in my article Why Flexibility Resilience and Agility in Life are So Important. 

Next, I will introduce the 80-20 rule in more depth in my article "What is the 80-20 Rule and Why is it so Useful?”   #GTD  #MindTools