2899: Goodhart's Law

2024-02-26T23:16:52Z

162.158.63.115:

{{comic
| number = 2899
| date = February 26, 2024
| title = Goodhart's Law
| image = goodharts_law_2x.png
| imagesize = 295x321px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = [later] I'm pleased to report we're now identifying and replacing hundreds of outdated metrics per hour.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a METRIC OF METRICS PER METRIC METRIC - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

A metric or {{w|performance indicator}} is a measure (hence "metric") chosen as indicative (hence "indicator") that the system overall is working as intended (for example, the number of cars sold may be used to measure how healthy a particular country's economy might be). {{w|Goodhart's law}} is the idea that when the metric becomes the only thing people focus on, all efforts will be directed to improving that metric rather than improving the system (for example, cars may be heavily subsidized since it matters not how much money a car makes or who gets one, all that matters is that the total number of cars sold goes up). This causes the metric to lose its correlation with the things it was indirectly measuring (that enough people could afford to buy a car), hence the metric ceases to be a good metric.

In the comic, [[White Hat]] suggests addressing this by creating a metric of how many metrics have become a target, and immediately suggests a way to direct all efforts to improving that metric (to give a bonus to anyone who finds a metric that has been targeted), thereby making it, by design, not a good metric.

The title text continues the joke, by presenting a new metric (changes per hour) in a pleased manner, although that many changes (and offered bonuses per hour) would likely be ruinous to their organization.

==Transcript==

:[Cueball and White Hat, standing. Cueball is talking to White Hat. White Hat has a hand on his chin.]
:Cueball: When a metric becomes a target, it ceases to be a good metric.
:White Hat: Sounds bad. Let's offer a bonus to anyone who identifies a metric that has become a target.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Statistics]]

Talk:2897: Light Leap Years

2024-02-21T16:23:08Z

162.158.63.115: Random observation on the frequency of Gregorian leap years.

Not that it effects the joke, but the Gregorian calendar has 97 leap years per 400 year cycle. I was surprised that I was surprised by that. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.115|162.158.63.115]] 16:23, 21 February 2024 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2899: Goodhart's Law

Talk:2897: Light Leap Years