The 80/20 Rule

That rule seems to apply to most things, cars, bicycles, gear.

I have a nice 5k mountain bike. I used to ride pretty much everything I do on it with a $1,000 bike (80% less) years ago.

A car that costs 10k will get you to the same places as a 50k car.
 
pict said:
It would be nice to have the very best in every category. It would also be nice to have the capabilities of an Olympic athlete and the speed and precision of a competition level shooter. Since most of us settle for the lower end of the 80/20 rule in most areas of life, what gear, blades, and equipment hit the 80/20 mark in your experience?
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I understand that for a big knife a Busse is hard to beat, but a BK-9 would handle 80% of what a Busse could do (quite easily) and only costs about 20% of a Busse. You can get a KA-BAR Becker BK-9 for under $70 at more than one online store and it is a hell of a good knife for the money even if the blade isn't made from Infi.

You mentioned Mora, I'd like to add a +1 on that.

Opinel is the folding knife brand that gives you 80% of what you want in a folding knife for 20% of the cost. Sure you don't get one handed opening, but you get a great slicer with a locking blade and a choice of carbon or stainless.

These are just examples from personal experience of good products for cheap/reasonable prices. I think that with a little research anyone could get themselves well equipped with decent knives that perform the required tasks well - without spending a fortune.

Apart from knives I have bought other stuff that is good value for the money.

I bought 5 of these at $1.65 ea.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3734
They are a cheap (made in China) peanut lighter, but they work well. I filled them with Zippo lighter fluid and found that unused they didn't dry out (O-ring sealed) and work fine 3 months after filling. I keep one in my pocket as an EDC item. They will light someones cigarette or your tinder for a campfire as well as an expensive lighter, but cost much less than most.
 
Thanks for the link, I just ordered 5.
 
Charlie Mike said:
Thanks for the link, I just ordered 5.
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I have ordered lots of stuff from them. They have a huge range - mostly complete crap, but there are useful things amongst the junk and with worldwide free shipping it really does work out to be good value. They even have some knives :barf: OK, so I won't be buying those. Some of the jet torch lighters work well though and I take a couple of them with me when I go camping - you would be amazed at how much easier it is to get a fire going with more heat and flame, you can just about bypass the tinder and just get your kindling burning.

Just be aware that jet torch lighter need a certain amount of oxygen to work and they just wont light at all if you are at a very high altitude. This isn't normally an issue, but if you were to climb everest then don't take this sort of lighter with you. You also should be aware of the effect of cold on the vaporisation of the butane - many lighter will fail when it is very cold too. I like to take a firesteel & some tinder as a backup.
 
I think you are on to something with that 80/20 rule. It has been my experience when camping with a group that if I drink 80% of the booze on the first night, I have to be 100% faster at running from the group. I don't remember what I used the 20% for, but after drinking the 80%, who can blame me.
 
go2ndAmend said:
I think you are on to something with that 80/20 rule. It has been my experience when camping with a group that if I drink 80% of the booze on the first night, I have to be 100% faster at running from the group. I don't remember what I used the 20% for, but after drinking the 80%, who can blame me.
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All that sounds a little far fetched! If you drank 80% of the groups booze on the first night I'd say you would only have a 20% chance of not taking a beating and there is no way you are going to be able to run 100% faster
"Hey, who drank most of the booze, it's the first night FFS!"
"I think it was that drunk guy over there, it's time to issue the mother of all beatings!"
"Damn, he's running away"
"It's OK, he has fallen over and is having trouble getting up"
"Let's give him a good kickin' while he is down!"
 
Great thread!

Since others are tossing out their variations on the rule, I've got one. I once heard that in a group, 80% of people are followers and 20% are leaders. Of the 20%, half will lead the group in a good direction (positive leaders) and the other half will bring the group down by complaining or leading group members astray (negative leaders). The idea has stuck with me for life.
 
80/20... That's a cool idea, and a pretty accurate one too I think. If ppl would follow this rule with the big acquisitions in life also I bet most would have 80% more energy and free time to do what they actually like doing instead of sitting in the office around the clock, paying off huge loans that they took to buy stuff that easily falls into "the last 20%" -category.

I think I kinda knew this on some level when I quit my job a year ago. My income dropped ~75%, but I still have a good-enough place to live in and good-enough food to eat. AND as a bonus I now get to do stuff thats actually intresting and inspiring (I went back to school to study nature and environment :) ).
 
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Honestly, I'd say that 100% of the work can be done with knives that cost 20% of the "nice" knives.

In fact, back in the day before special ops troops were called "operators" and got big paychecks, most of the guys wearing the funny green floppy hats carried nothing more than a pocket knife of some sort. Machetes were common. Some carried a Kabar or an AF survival knife. I RARELY saw anything bigger/better than those $30-ish knives

We managed to get by in the field and cut the things that needed to be cut 100% of the time.

Of course, we weren't operators or internet commandos. :)

The truth is we buy bigger and better knives because we want them and like them, not because we need them. Nothing wrong with that. I really NEED a new Jeep Unlimited. Really, I do.
 
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