Summary
We’ve come to accept prima facie that quantitative Measurement MOC of our activities is a positive good; however, measurement can be counterproductive or misleading in a number of different ways. We assume that quantitative measurement is more objective and scientific than qualitative judgment. But, the measures we choose to use are themselves the result of human choice. Moreover, metric fixation comes at a cost: in addition to the resources required to correct and manage data, the distillation of information into numbers is a kind of lossy compression. Perhaps most importantly, measuring performance and work alters our relationship to our work, and directs human behaviour in ways that may be harmful to ourselves and our society.
Concepts
Notes
- Quantitative analysis is not inherently more reliable than qualitative data
- Standardizing information can degrade its quality
- Metric fixation is a symptom of a decline in social trust
- We tend to measure what is easy to measure, not what matters
- Measurement changes our relationship to our work.
- We tend to measure what is easy to measure, not what matters
- Fixating on metric data biases us to the short term
- Measurement is not cost-neutral
Citation
Muller, Jerry Z. The Tyranny of Metrics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.
Backlinks
No backlinks found.