4 ms·
I think you may enjoy reading about Mcnamara’s fallacy, coincidentally also related McNamara of the Vietnam war: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/McNamara_fallac
by polygamous_bat 3y ago
I think you may enjoy reading about Mcnamara’s fallacy, coincidentally also related McNamara of the Vietnam war: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/McNamara_fallacy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/McNamara_fallacy
I hope it makes you reconsider your position about disregarding non-quantifiable benefits.
> But when the McNamara discipline is applied too literally, the first step is to measure whatever can be easily measured. The second step is to disregard that which can't easily be measured or given a quantitative value. The third step is to presume that what can't be measured easily really isn't important. The fo[u]rth step is to say that what can't be easily measured really doesn't exist. This is suicide. — Daniel Yankelovich, "Interpreting the New Life Styles", Sales Management (1971)
- pfdietz 3y agoThe McNamara fallacy is about inappropriate metrics against real, objective measures like "have we actually won the war?", not competition against vague considerations that aren't even objectively definable. The "Overview Effect" thing also struck me as self-serving bullshit. It didn't seem to reflect anything I ever saw in the real world. It was something a space fan would like to be true, and so motivated reasoning took hold.