The 90% Rule

There are quite a few golden rules in life. One that had helped me get along in life well is the following one :

90% of everything is boring !

There isn't any profession or a job or any arrangement that is an unadulterated happiness.

After the initial euphoria, almost everything settles into a rather routine schedule; same problems with different faces and names. Things that look extremely attractive from outside are not the full details - there will be many fine prints, ifs and buts, and 'installation charges extra' kind of things.


I used to think creative people like writers and artists have a blissful life. They do what they like the best and make a living out of it - and, get paid for it ! Wow, wonderful, I thought. But, recently I read a wonderful tamil book by A.Muthulingam called 'Viyathalum Ilamae..' in which he has interviewed more than 10 international famous writers. (You can read the review of this book in my Tamil blog here). There these famous writers say how difficult it is to find a publisher, edit the contents as per the wishes of the editor, how they suffer due to impractical deadlines, etc. When we read a nice story or see a terrific (successful) film, we don't realise these things that happen in their lives !

So, now I don't crib when for a full day I search for some missing paise in the accounts. When I sit through some boring discussions. When I format a whole long document inserting page breaks, reducing / increasing the font sizes to fit them into A4 pages. These are all part of the 90% quota. The final product is quite exciting (almost everywhere), the production process will surely fall under this 'boring' rule.

But, what it also means, in other words, is that there is 10% interesting stuff in everything as well. For example, the presentation mentioned in the cartoon above has an interesting aspect that when it comes to an end, the world is going to be one swell of a place ! Much before than it was, when the presentation started.

There is fun hidden in interacting with a terrible government official also. When you find out the missing paise and the statement tallies, there is a thrill. Even when there is a bug in my computer program, if it was logically found out by someone trained by me.

So, when I understood the wisdom of this 90% golden rule, things are quite fine with me.

Sorry, most part of this post is preaching-of-sorts and quite boring. But, what else do you expect ?