Darius Foroux
dariusforoux.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2017
Darius Foroux writes self-improvement and productivity essays on career success, time management, and habits.
What HN saysHN mostly links his Price's Law post in discussions of how few people produce most of the work; one commenter lists the blog under productivity and self improvement.
35HN people shared it
10linked it in comments
31stories submitted
1.0Kstory points
5 months agolast shared
2017people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Price's Law: Why Only a Few People Generate Half of the Results11 people · 59 points · first shared 2018 · 31 comments on HN
- 2Here’s Why Time Off Work Actually IMPROVES Your Work and Life3 people · 6 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 3Impatience: The Pitfall of Every Ambitious Person1 people · 241 points · first shared 2018 · 34 comments on HN
- 4Don’t Quit When It Gets Hard1 people · 230 points · first shared 2017 · 141 comments on HN
- 5Skill Stacking: A Practical Strategy to Achieve Career Success1 people · 189 points · first shared 2018 · 100 comments on HN
- 6We Can Achieve Anything If We Stop Trying To Do Everything1 people · 180 points · first shared 2017 · 48 comments on HN
- 7‘Why Am I Not Rich and Famous?’ The Delusion of Our Times1 people · 58 points · first shared 2022 · 103 comments on HN
- 8Things About Life I Wish I Had Known 10 Years Ago1 people · 36 points · first shared 2017 · 6 comments on HN
- 9What No One Tells You About Early Retirement1 people · 5 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 10The Purpose of Life Is Not Happiness: It’s Usefulness1 people · 3 points · first shared 2022 · 3 comments on HN
- 11How to Get Rid of the Thoughts That Are Clogging Your Brain1 people · 3 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 12How to Be Productive When Your Life Is in Chaos (2018)1 people · 2 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 13How to Get Back on Track1 people · 2 points · first shared 2020 · discussion on HN
- 14Always Protect the Downside1 people · 2 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 15If You Are Reading This, You Are Already Ahead1 people · 2 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
ZephyrBlu · 2021-01-14
Well if you think about it, it's not that hard to imagine how it happens.
First, you have Price's Law [0] which states that half the work is done by the square root of the number of people. This in itself already implies a lot of useless people, especially at a company the size of Intel.
You might also have whole orgs/departments where pretty much everyone is phoning it in, so that would drive it up as well.
The way I see it is the more layers there are and the more removed people at the top are from the work, the greater chance the of useless people being able to go under the radar.
[0] https://dariusforoux.com/prices-law/
nestorherre · 2020-01-02
https://dariusforoux.com/ on productivity, self improvement.
https://fs.blog/ mental models, critical thinking.
shagie · 2024-11-04
Price's Law is "50% of the work is done by the square root of the total number of people who participate in the work."
https://dariusforoux.com/prices-law/
https://routine.co/blog/what-is-the-prices-law-and-why-is-it-important
Gustomaximus · 2022-11-21
See Prices Law
https://dariusforoux.com/prices-law/
The key question is how to you find & keep the 100 or so key people from a 7,500 company when reducing numbers.
stephc_int13 · 2022-07-24
That one, yes, generalized to any organization.
https://dariusforoux.com/prices-law/
Chyzwar · 2021-12-18
Other good senior people in the team see your performance. In big companies this is normal as nobody will want to upset other people feeling. Managers will also refrain from firing because it reflects on them badly, stop them from building an empire, and hiring is hard.
I am finding that Price's law[1] is very true in programming. You have two pizza teams that have 1-3 top performers carry the rest of the team/project. As long, you are not annoying, team would keep you. There is a very thin line when top performers can become unhappy with a company, project, or team and leave. People that were previously coasting might get more involved or the team implodes.
[1] https://dariusforoux.com/prices-law/
throwawaysea · 2019-12-13
> "I am a 10X dev and I don;t want the union to pay me the same as my colleague that is a lesser developer then me."
This is a valid concern for highly-paid/specialized individuals, IMO. Price's Law (https://dariusforoux.com/prices-law/): 50% of the work is done by the square root of the total number of people who participate in the work.
AchieveLife · 2019-03-08
wait wait wait.
You're proposing that the executives don't know what recruiting practices their company is employing to sustain talent for their operations?
Cmon, that's ridiculous. They would be terrible executives if this were true.
Most people I meet agree that recruiting is broken. A huge part of this is regulation. The education system is integrated into the backbone of society which is maintained through regulation.
If you were hired for only a degree then I would be wary of Price's law. https://dariusforoux.com/prices-law/
jonahx · 2018-10-05
Price's Law says no:
> 50% of the work is done by the square root of the total number of people who participate in the work.
https://dariusforoux.com/prices-law/
wanqu · 2017-09-10
Thanks!
This reminds me of an article that I'm going to curate today: "Being Different Beats Being Better" http://dariusforoux.com/being-different-beats-being-better/