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Comment by swombat | Hacker News Reader

90% of tech blog authors want some cool statistics to quote

90% of those will be willing to make them up to get there

90% of those will add as many steps as it takes to make the point they were trying to make, probably one about difficulty of getting from one step to the next

90% of those will be willing to publish those made up statistics

100% of those will lose a chunk of credibility by doing so.

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I get your point, but I think you missed his.

Agreed....and I generally enjoy the article listings on Swombat too. Nothing wrong with the application of the 80/20 "rule" here. No way to determine the actual numbers but as a thought provoker 80/20 is just fine.... and an identifiable concept many are already familiar with.

It's a very poor way to make a point. It's like if I used the fact that the earth is flat to illustrate an otherwise good point. The point may be valid, but using such a bad illustration is better than not making the point at all.

His point isn't anything more than "Only a small proportion of people will be successful startup founders." We know this from experience and intuitively, because it's hard to start a startup and succeed.

The problem with his "argument" is that it's completely arbitrary. And I don't mean the 80/20 part, although that is too. He applies the 80/20 rule an arbitrary number of times. Why not one fewer? Why not four more times, which would get the number of startup founders down to 2.5? I can easily make up four more statements justifying the application of the rule.

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