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> [Goodhart's Law] is descriptive; it tells you of the existence of a phenomenon, but it doesn’t tell you what to do about it or how to solve it. This is the d
by kolbe 4y ago
> [Goodhart's Law] is descriptive; it tells you of the existence of a phenomenon, but it doesn’t tell you what to do about it or how to solve it.
This is the difference between an adage and an essay. And I will say just thunking about the existence of Goodhart's Law whenever you design a system is all you really need. Any time you make a metric, put yourself in the shoes of the people who will be judged by the metric, and try to game it as hard as you can. Ask others to try to game it. And if the cheating you discover is manageable, use it. If not, get rid of it.
- ghaff 4y agoI agree with all that. If you're an organization of any size, you need some level of metrics and measurement. And, if you're a public company, the owners (i.e. shareholders) are going to dictate some of that at a company level. (And even if you're a growth unicorn, that just means the metrics are around growth rather than profit or revenue.) Just counting on everyone to do the "right thing" and evaluating them on gut feel doesn't really work at scale.