A very interesting point. Note the pattern in responses: 1. Lots of people criticizing the proposed metrics. 2. Hardly anyone proposing ways to improve them (

A very interesting point. Note the pattern in responses: 1. Lots of people criticizing the proposed metrics. 2. Hardly anyone proposing ways to improve them (e.g. augmenting them with information about the difficulty of the cases that were taken). 3. Hardly anyone pointing out that even worse criticisms can be made of the informal criteria customers currently use (the shape of someone's nose, where he went to school, who he knows, the amount of money that was spent on his office). Most of the criticisms made in #1 are true as far as they go, so looking at any one of them in isolation wouldn't tell you anything much. It's the overall pattern that's informative.