Goodhart’s law states:

When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

What this means is that when we use a measure, or a metric, and it becomes a target, then that metric will become the sole focus, at the expense of everything else.

A perfect example of this is “testing” in the US school systems. As testing (IQ, Map, AP, SAT, etc) has become more and more of a metric by which education has become measured. It is becoming less and less relevant as an indicator.

Schools and students are obsessed with scoring well on tests. Because of this everything becomes focused on doing well on the tests instead of education.

This happens even at the college level with tests like the GMAT and LSAT.

So education has become less about education–ie. learning to broaden understanding, and learning how to learn–and more about how to score well on tests.

This is a trap that is easy to fall into, because goals and metrics are good. But having a sole metric that drives the measure of success distorts everything, warping all work into meeting this singular metric.

Holistic goals are better. Focusing on processes instead of results is better.

Remember Goodhart’s law any time you are asked to measure success against a singular metric and focus on why the metric is there, instead of just meeting the goal.

blackberries

wild blackberries grown
succulent, fragrant midst thorns,
sunlight, wind, and rain