Willie Sutton Rule

The Willie Sutton Rule comes from the one-and-only Willie Sutton, American bank robber extraordinaire, who stole a tidy $2 million and escaped prison not once...not twice...but three times.

When asked why he stole from banks, he said “Because that’s where the money is.” And thus was born the Willie Sutton Rule, which states that where large costs are, you should prioritize activities by necessity to save the most money.

While often used in business management, this can also be used in a ton of fields, like medicine and even science. Basically, start with the clearest, most obvious options (low-hanging fruit) before venturing elsewhere into less-clear (and potentially more expensive) endeavors.