Jerry Z. Muller

Soviet shoddy goods numerical targets school police quota

“just as Soviet managers responded by producing shoddy goods that met the numerical targets set by their overlords, so do schools, police forces, and businesses find ways of fulfilling quotas with shoddy goods of their own:”

― Jerry Z. Muller

accountability responsible action standard measurement count

“Accountability ought to mean being held responsible for one’s actions. But by a sort of linguistic sleight of hand, accountability has come to mean demonstrating success through standardized measurement, as if only that which can be counted really counts.”

― Jerry Z. Muller

metric fixation replace judgement experience standard

“The most characteristic feature of metric fixation is the aspiration to replace judgment based on experience with standardized measurement.”

― Jerry Z. Muller

metrics proxy judgement performance rating count

“If what is actually measured is a reasonable proxy for what is intended to be measured, and if it is combined with judgment, then measurement can help practitioners to assess their own performance, both for individuals and for organizations. But problems arise when such measures become the criteria used to reward and punish—when metrics become the basis of pay-for-performance or ratings.”

― Jerry Z. Muller

metric fixation resources frontline producer managers data

“Metric fixation leads to a diversion of resources away from frontline producers toward managers, administrators, and those who gather and manipulate data.”

― Jerry Z. Muller

metric fixation negative important measurable

“Metric fixation is the persistence of these beliefs despite their unintended negative consequences when they are put into practice. It occurs because not everything that is important is measureable, and much that is measurable is unimportant.”

― Jerry Z. Muller

conform preestablished numerical goals metrics fixation

“Trying to force people to conform their work to preestablished numerical goals tends to stifle innovation and creativity—valuable qualities in most settings. And it almost inevitably leads to a valuation of short-term goals over long-term purposes.”

― Jerry Z. Muller

capitalism complex economist

“...capitalism is too important and complex a subject to be left to economists. Achieving a critical comprehension of it requires perspectives beyond those characteristic of modern economics. That is why this is a history not of economic ideas, but of ideas beyond the capitalist economy.”

― Jerry Z. Muller

solution problem performance data virtue simulacrum success

“In situations where there are no real feasible solutions to a problem, the gathering and publication of performance data serves as a form of virtue signaling. There is no real progress to show, but the effort demonstrated in gathering and publicizing the data satisfies a sense of moral earnestness. In lieu of real progress, the progress of measurement becomes a simulacrum of success.”

― Jerry Z. Muller