Goodhart's Law

Mental models

When a measure becomes a target it ceases to be a good measure, because effort flows to the proxy rather than the thing. Earnings per share, same-store sales and user counts all decay this way once compensation is attached. The defence is to read any metric alongside the incentive that produced it.

5 books · 4 resources

Start here

  1. FreakonomicsSteven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner, 2005
  2. The Tyranny of MetricsJerry Z. Muller, 2018
  3. Seeing Like a StateJames C. Scott, 1998

Resources 4

Books 5

Seeing Like a State
T1 Seeing Like a State
James C. Scott · 1998
Open Library
Balaji S. SrinivasanNat EliasonBalaji Srinivasan
Freakonomics
T1 Freakonomics
Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner · 2005
Open Library
Mohnish PabraiAndrew LokenauthEv WilliamsJames AltucherRaoul PalRuslan KoganSimon SinekSteph Smith
Economics, Organization and Management
T2 Economics, Organization and Management
Paul Milgrom, John Roberts · 1992
unverified
Weapons of Math Destruction
T2 Weapons of Math Destruction
Cathy O'Neil · 2016
Open Library
Tom Peters
The Tyranny of Metrics
T2 The Tyranny of Metrics
Jerry Z. Muller · 2018
Open Library