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My guest today is Jerry Muller, a professor of history at The Catholic University of America, where he has taught since 1984. His latest book is “The Tyranny of Metrics.” Quantifying metrics can be a good thing, however, it can easily go too far and have great consequences. Jerry sees pitfalls of focusing too much on metrics everywhere – schools, hospitals, even venture capital. Children gear their learning toward beating a test rather than intellectually developing their mind. Doctors fixate on standardized performance measures, rewards and punishment, and publicized accountability. The system encourages and sometimes requires doctors to game the system. Venture capitalism, the very field where creativity should prosper, tends to foster an anti-creative atmosphere. Investors want to see data to back up a new product so they can see proof of a future profit.
The topic is his book The Tyranny of Metrics.
In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:
- Intrinsic motivation
- Tyranny of metrics
- Metric fixation
- Metrics in law enforcement
- Metrics in health industry
- Managerial ideology
- Powerpoint presentations
- Metrics in China
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