Objective measurements only cause improvements if they're measuring something useful. Improvements to easily measurable quantities often come at the opportunity cost of harder-to-quantify changes that would improve the overall product more, and some are even actively harmful. For example:
Smartphone manufacturers emphasizing camera resolution led to a megapixel count arms race with little improvement in picture quality. Enthusiast electronics specifications frequently go down this path (display resolution, mouse DPI, processor core count, etc.) Conversely, software improvements to smartphone cameras, which are very hard to measure objectively, massively improved picture quality.
Commit count and lines of code are easy to quantify, but not causal of software quality. GitHub can't objectively measure quality, so their activity feed counts commits, which incentivizes an increase in volume without a corresponding increase in quality.
Medical tests and screenings are often overused or improperly targeted (e.g. mammography in elderly women), leading to higher costs, patient distress, and improper diagnoses without significant improvements in overall health. Continuous fetal heart rate monitoring (vs. intermittent) during delivery leads to significantly more interventions without significantly better outcomes for mother or child.
Access to irrelevant information simply isn't a net good. The key sentence here is:
> This isn’t to say there’s anything wrong with a cold beer.
I can't remember if it's this substack or a different substack that I've said this in before, but I have actually run this experiment.
> See what happens to the CO2 level when you sleep with the door closed,
With windows fully open to the outside air, CO2 levels inside rapidly drop to 400 to 500, which makes sense.
With windows closed to the outside air, but all internal doors open and HVAC running, CO2 levels seem to stabilize around 800 to 900.
If I close all of the doors to my bedroom, it will rise from 900 to about 1300 within an hour. I haven't actually measured it with the door closed for an extended period of time, but if I'm bored I might do that later today.
Fun fact: OSHA limits what internal CO2 levels can be for offices. I forget what the level is. I think it's 1400 is the acceptable maximum level. Every office I have ever worked in exceeded this level daily. This is why I bought the monitor originally. I noticed that in the afternoon at my office I would get extremely tired and have trouble focusing and I was drinking four or five coffees to compensate. I wondered if it might be "sick building syndrome", and I got a monitor to investigate
Imagine if the federal health department (CDC, NIH, etc...) used their...er our tax dollars to help in the suppression of rifle sound signature?
Like PewScience.com
How many combat veterans would NOT be walking around with either tinnitus or hearing loss.
Objective measurements only cause improvements if they're measuring something useful. Improvements to easily measurable quantities often come at the opportunity cost of harder-to-quantify changes that would improve the overall product more, and some are even actively harmful. For example:
Smartphone manufacturers emphasizing camera resolution led to a megapixel count arms race with little improvement in picture quality. Enthusiast electronics specifications frequently go down this path (display resolution, mouse DPI, processor core count, etc.) Conversely, software improvements to smartphone cameras, which are very hard to measure objectively, massively improved picture quality.
Commit count and lines of code are easy to quantify, but not causal of software quality. GitHub can't objectively measure quality, so their activity feed counts commits, which incentivizes an increase in volume without a corresponding increase in quality.
Medical tests and screenings are often overused or improperly targeted (e.g. mammography in elderly women), leading to higher costs, patient distress, and improper diagnoses without significant improvements in overall health. Continuous fetal heart rate monitoring (vs. intermittent) during delivery leads to significantly more interventions without significantly better outcomes for mother or child.
Access to irrelevant information simply isn't a net good. The key sentence here is:
> This isn’t to say there’s anything wrong with a cold beer.
For sure
I can't remember if it's this substack or a different substack that I've said this in before, but I have actually run this experiment.
> See what happens to the CO2 level when you sleep with the door closed,
With windows fully open to the outside air, CO2 levels inside rapidly drop to 400 to 500, which makes sense.
With windows closed to the outside air, but all internal doors open and HVAC running, CO2 levels seem to stabilize around 800 to 900.
If I close all of the doors to my bedroom, it will rise from 900 to about 1300 within an hour. I haven't actually measured it with the door closed for an extended period of time, but if I'm bored I might do that later today.
Fun fact: OSHA limits what internal CO2 levels can be for offices. I forget what the level is. I think it's 1400 is the acceptable maximum level. Every office I have ever worked in exceeded this level daily. This is why I bought the monitor originally. I noticed that in the afternoon at my office I would get extremely tired and have trouble focusing and I was drinking four or five coffees to compensate. I wondered if it might be "sick building syndrome", and I got a monitor to investigate
I bought a monitor recently and I noticed the level rises dramatically when my gf comes over. It amuses me to point this out to her.
Pretty fascinating to go down the IAQ rabbit hole