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You raise interesting points. I disagree on keeping metrics secret though. Keeping the value system for evaluating people's performance and the wealth they crea

You raise interesting points. I disagree on keeping metrics secret though. Keeping the value system for evaluating people's performance and the wealth they create secret, only leads to subjective standards and gives the keeper of the secret far too much power. To the contrary, I think that only metrics as known and objective as monetary value can ever be useful, as otherwise lots of productivity would be wasted in pursuit of the wrong (secret) metrics. It may be true that at any given point in time, there may be some wrongfully inflated monetary high scores. I think they always get detected over time, though. Are there any wrongfully inflated high scores over the course of time? I think not, as there is wealth to be created in detecting the frauds. Ultimately, I think, over time there are not as much incentives to manipulate information in order to wrongfully inflate your wealth as there are to produce sustainable wealth.

Psyonic 17y ago
One of the best ways to improve your wealth is imperialism, i.e. taking what isn't yours, but on a grand scale. It has worked for royalty forever, and while it's out in the open, nothing was ever done about it. What did the royalty do in Arab countries that the common person didn't? Lay claim to the land containing oil. Scarcity can create value, but it's hard to argue that the person who claims it is really "creating value," as anyone else who owned it could do the same. At least not in the same sense that an artist creates something new out of nothing.
Psyonic 17y ago
Making the metric well known can really screw systems up. Take google, for instance. Their original idea of link reputation was clever, but once it became known people came up with ways to game it, and now a large portion of internet exists for only that reason. Perhaps the alternative is worse though... hard to say.

Psyonic 17y ago

One of the best ways to improve your wealth is imperialism, i.e. taking what isn't yours, but on a grand scale. It has worked for royalty forever, and while it's out in the open, nothing was ever done about it. What did the royalty do in Arab countries that the common person didn't? Lay claim to the land containing oil. Scarcity can create value, but it's hard to argue that the person who claims it is really "creating value," as anyone else who owned it could do the same. At least not in the same sense that an artist creates something new out of nothing.

Psyonic 17y ago

Making the metric well known can really screw systems up. Take google, for instance. Their original idea of link reputation was clever, but once it became known people came up with ways to game it, and now a large portion of internet exists for only that reason. Perhaps the alternative is worse though... hard to say.