Be Careful What You Measure

Be Careful What You Measure

Last Week’s News and a Life Lesson

Last week, Wells Fargo fired a bunch of their remote employees. It turns out that these employees were "simulating keyboard activity" (with a program/device that automatically typed keys or jiggled their mouse when they weren’t at their computer).

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Why?

Because that’s how these employees were evaluated: not by how many clients they brought in, nor how many relationships they fostered, but by how many hours they were active on their computers.

The Lesson

So, that’s exactly what these employees gave them. Remember, this is the same bank that told employees back in 2017: "Sign up as many clients to extra banking services as possible." The result? Millions of unknowing customers had credit cards and savings accounts and brokerage accounts created illegally in their names, hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, and destroyed goodwill for Wells Fargo.

The Principle

Bloomberg’s Matt Levine said it well: "Two basic principles of management, and regulation, and life, are: You get what you measure. The thing that you measure will get gamed."

Everyday Applications

We download Duolingo to learn to converse with a native speaker in their language. Months later, we’re checking in daily so we don’t get yelled at by the Owl, we are desperate to keep our daily streak active…and we can only say "I found a blue ostrich at the library."

We lie in bed, waiving our arm above our head like a madman, because our FitBit says we need 500 more steps to hit 10,000 for the day.

I once "meditated" every single day for 6 months so that I could build my meditation streak in Headspace. Sometimes I would even open the app and just let the meditation play so I got credit for it, even though I wasn’t meditating…THE WHOLE REASON I HAD DOWNLOADED THE APP.

We tell ourselves that we want to "read more," but then we track how many books we read. This incentivizes us to read books quickly (without retaining any of it), instead of tackling bigger challenges like War & Peace or rereading our favorite books to glean more lessons.

What Are You Measuring?

The majority of people visit NerdFitness.com to "lose weight." This is the one metric that everybody is used to tracking. Every ad talks about how to lose weight fast. They see the number on the scale and let that number determine how they feel about themselves that day.

The Wrong Metric

This is the wrong metric to exclusively focus on: we don’t really want to "lose weight." What we want is to lose fat while keeping the muscle we have (or building muscle). If our ONLY goal is weight loss, severe calorie restriction and endless cardio might result in a lower number on the scale. BUT! If we don’t change our relationship with food, and consume enough of the right macronutrients and micronutrients, we’ll end up feeling lethargic, starved, and miserable…and then gorge ourselves as soon as life gets in the way.

What to Track, What NOT to Track

Remember, that which gets measured gets improved, so let’s be smart about what we’re tracking. We can ask, "What do I REALLY want to happen? Is this the right metric for that goal?"

Trying to "eat better"? Track your protein intake and number of fruits/veggies eaten daily. If those are the first two things on your plate for each meal, your weight will start to shift without your focus on it.

Trying to build a "beach body"? Great, let’s build some muscle. Track your workouts, and write down exactly how many sets and reps. Then, do ONE more next time. The goal? Progressive overload for the win! Get stronger…

Want to read more? Don’t track "books read," which might result in you picking shorter books or speed reading, but instead track "time spent reading." This can include audiobooks, rereading old books, whatever. Treat your reading list like a river, not a to-do list!

Conclusion

When it comes to personal development or health improvement, it helps to ask: "What am I optimizing for, and does that actually help me get the result I really want?" We can then decide if we’re even playing with the right scorecard and keeping our focus on the right metric.

FAQs

Q: What’s a metric you USED to prioritize, but no longer track? And what’s the important metric that you’re choosing to prioritize these days?
A: Hit reply on this and let me know!

Note: The FAQs section is intended to be a direct copy of the original text, without any modifications or additions.