3 ms·
> > What should we measure to measure productivity of journalists? > Visits, clicks, read time. > > Novel writers? > Sales, reviews. > > Pop song composers?
by hcarvalhoalves 4y ago
> > What should we measure to measure productivity of journalists?
> Visits, clicks, read time.
> > Novel writers?
> Sales, reviews.
> > Pop song composers?
> Hits.
These are all proxies for revenue. So, you could just measure revenue.
Then you fall into the trap of producing mediocre creative work to try to maximize revenue.
- quanticle 4y agoIf you're coding for someone else, rather than coding for yourself, why is this a trap? It might be satisfying to deliver a hyper-optimized end product, using optimal algorithms everywhere, with everything tuned so that it delivers the maximum performance with the minimum resource usage. But is that what your customer is paying for? Or are they paying for a website that works well, and is operational at the end of the month? Not everything has to be a work of high art. Pop art is fine too.
- simondw 4y agoFor one thing, total revenue over some longer time period is probably the actual thing to maximize. Short-term revenue may not be the best predictor of that, but we still need short-term metrics to evaluate performance.