The Measure of the Man
Last updated: Tue, 07 Jun 2005 12:01:00 GMT
Measurement is bad.
Well, not bad in and of itself, per se, but it can be. What's damaging, I think, is failing to measure the right thing, using the wrong metrics to guage success.
We seem to be fixated with numbers. Perhaps because it's easier to set an absolute threshold with a number, and we avoid any sticky subjectives. By fixating on some sort of absolute measurement we lose sight of the qualities we're aiming for.
Road safety is a good example. I've been stopped and fined for speeding twice. The second time, the policeman in question actually apologised to me for what he was about to do. As he put it, I had been "going some" when I passed him some miles back -- where going some was the wrong side of a hundred miles an hour -- but when he caught up with me I had slowed down. Why? Because there was traffic. It was no longer safe to travel at the speeds I had been travelling previously. He admitted to me that I was clearly making all of the necessary observations and indications, and that to all intents and purpose I was a safe rider.
And then he gave me ticket, a £60 fine and three penalty points for my license.
"We've got Vascar, you see; when we get back to the station someone checks the logs and if we've got a logged speed of 92mph and no booking to show for it, questions will be asked."
I took it on the chin. But I still don't think I did anything wrong.
Speed limits in built up areas exist for a reason. I stick to them most piously. Speed limits in danger spots exist for a reason, and I'll stick to any limit posted except the national speed limit. There's no good reason for a national speed limit.
Except that there is: it's an absolute measure. Unlike the crime of Dangerous Driving, there's no judgement involved. No-one need hold an opinion. We can draw a neat little arbitrary line in the sand and say "on this side be Bad People." What a crock. Ask someone who's been run over by a driver failing to show Due Care.
And not only is speed a bad measure of safety, this distancing ourselves from reason and responsibility leads us down the Bad Path. People, in finding themselves exceeding the national speed limit safely, assume that all other speed limits don't apply to them. Just as bad, people also assume that if they're driving under the speed limit, they're driving safely. This just isn't so. They're fixating on the metric, not the qualities of safe and responsible driving that the metric was meant to embody.
But this wasn't meant to be a rant about road safety. Let's find another example of a bad measure.
Not too long ago I went and listened to a very clever man from Sun talk about the then imminent release of Solaris 10. I have to admit to being one of the Luddites that was aghast at the idea of swapping init for smf.
"But what benefit does this upheaval offer us?" I asked.
"Well, faster boot times for a start."
Right.
Faster boot times? What need have I for a quick reboot when my server stays up for months or years at a time? How very Microsoftian. The point had been missed -- it's faster because it knows about all the interdependencies in the services you start, so it can start a lot of things earlier than before, and start unrelated things in parallel. It's a Good Thing, measured badly.
Just today I heard Steve Jobs quoted as crowing that Apple had launched five versions of Mac OS X since 2000, while Microsoft had refreshed XP just once.
Wow. Our target is more movinger.
These measures are all meaningless, but our love of absolutes, and the effort of thinking that they save us from, has salivating for more, and baying them back at each other as if they prove something about our own worth.
"Oh, yeah? Well mine does 0 to 60 in 3.8 seconds, dual overhead cams, 1.43GHz at the rear wheel and about 102 foot-pound frontside bus."
Sheesh! Save me from these incessant, irrelevant, meaningless measurements!
You may or may not know that I've been planning to emigrate to New Zealand for some time now. Well, it seems that they're processing those applications just a little faster than I had anticipated. So I've got to go for a medical.
Crap. Mmm, you know, I've been planning to lose a little weight for some time now, but not quite got round to it. Family, kids, you know how it is. How bad can it be?
I made the mistake of measuring myself. Even after my long-held hatred of pointless numbers, I couldn't resist the temptation to find some way to mark milestones in my progress.
I'm 1.67m high and weigh 88.7Kg. This gives me a Body Mass Index of 31.8. Two years ago I weighed 68Kg and had a 29 inch waist. I was no taller. As of last week I'm visting the gym four times a week, burning 800Kcal in 70 minutes each time. Two times a week I go running, covering 5 miles, burning approximately 700Kcal in 40 minutes. All this in the vain hope that in the space of 8 weeks I'll be able to reduce my BMI to a normal level of 25. I have 56 days to lose 18.7Kg.
That's 0.33Kg a day.
"But don't you feel better for it?"
"No, I feel f*cked."