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Exactly. Don't reduce everything down to one factor. In business you need profit AND customer retention AND ongoing development AND some level of luck AND a lo
by maxxxxx 8y ago
Exactly. Don't reduce everything down to one factor.
In business you need profit AND customer retention AND ongoing development AND some level of luck AND a lot of other factors.
Same for health. You need enough sleep AND good food AND a good mental state AND good genes AND a lot of other things.
Focusing on only one thing while neglecting others doesn't work.
- mlthoughts2018 8y agoBut then your "one factor" just becomes a combination of various other factors. I don't think the point of Goodhart's Law is related to "over-optimizing for just one thing," rather it's a statement about whether any metric (even a broad, diverse metric that takes into account multiple different things) can retain informativeness once it is set up as an optimization target.
- maxxxxx 8y agoI think you could set up an optimization target for a company that says "be profitable and grow for the next 30 years". You would see quickly that this target is a complex beast with a lot of different factors at play that need to be balanced against each other. I don't think Goodhart's law would apply here.