‘Measuring Nothing (With Great Accuracy)’
Seth Godin back in 2014: You can’t tell if a book is any good by the number of words it contains, even though it’s quite easy and direct to measure this. (Vis-à-vis my sidenote over the weekend about Apple refusing to publish mAh battery specs for iPhones.) ★
Measuring things doesn't always equate to understanding their true significance. The weight of a television set, for instance, is irrelevant to the quality of its picture, even when measured to the smallest degree possible. The same applies to stereo equipment, where intricate charts and graphs offer little insight into the actual sound quality. Similarly, a person's Klout score or Twitter followers count might not accurately reflect their true influence, regardless of how meticulously these metrics are measured.
The length of a book, measured in words, doesn't necessarily indicate its quality. This straightforward measurement is often used, yet it fails to provide any meaningful insight into the book's content or value. In our modern world, we find ourselves continually devising new ways to measure things, such as processor speed, heat output, and column inches. However, these measurements rarely serve as a reliable proxy for the impact or quality we truly care about.
The courage to abandon measurable metrics is significant, and even more so to produce things that may not conform to conventional measurement standards.
Written by urgent.news from Daring Fireball's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
