8020.schoolInstructional design and mentoringThe vital few of any subject, explained plainly
Built around the few ideas that carry the weight. For individuals and for teams, by request.
100 things competing for your attention.
By request
Mentoring here is free-form. For you personally or for your company, we start from what you are trying to learn, build or teach, and shape it from there.
Tell me what you have in mind. I'll reply personally.
Vilfredo Pareto noticed that a small share of his garden's pea pods produced most of his peas. Then he found a similar skew in land ownership.
Learning often works this way too. Many fields have a handful of ideas that carry the weight and a long tail that mostly makes you feel busy.
A good guide says which is which, and leaves the rest out.
"80/20" is a metaphor, not a law. It names one principle: a small foundation carries disproportionate weight.
Ten years of teaching keep confirming one sequence.
Consistent with research: Sweller's cognitive load theory (structure first), Roediger and Karpicke's retrieval-practice studies (using knowledge beats rereading it) and Vygotsky's zone of proximal development, the guiding principle behind step four. Wood, Bruner and Ross named that support "scaffolding".
In practice, learners who treat struggle as part of the process tend to keep going.
Choosing the "20%" is a judgment call, and it varies by domain.
For teachers
Any subject with a foundation worth teaching well: music, history, craft, code.
Tell us your subject and one thing people get wrong about it.