Be Cautious What You Measure

Final week, Wells Fargo fired a bunch of their distant workers.

It seems that these workers had been “simulating keyboard exercise” (with a program/system that mechanically typed keys or jiggled their mouse once they weren’t at their laptop).

Why?

As a result of that’s how these workers had been evaluated:

Not by what number of purchasers they introduced in, nor what number of relationships they fostered, however by what number of hours they had been energetic on their computer systems.

In order that’s precisely what these workers gave them.

Keep in mind, this is similar financial institution that instructed workers again in 2017: “Join as many purchasers to additional banking companies as attainable.”

The outcome?

Hundreds of thousands of unknowing clients had bank cards and financial savings accounts and brokerage accounts created illegally of their names, a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} in fines, and destroyed goodwill for Wells Fargo.

Why did each of those comically dangerous lapses in judgment occur?

Bloomberg’s Matt Levine stated it effectively:

Two fundamental ideas of administration, and regulation, and life, are:

You get what you measure.

The factor that you just measure will get gamed.

Actually that’s only one precept: You get what you measure, however solely precisely what you measure. There’s no assure that you just’ll get the extra basic good factor that you just thought you had been roughly measuring.

In order for you exhausting employees and measure hours labored, you’ll get quite a lot of employees browsing the web till midnight.

I stumbled throughout this story final week, and instantly thought how this precise incentive-and-unexpected-results performs out on a regular basis in our lives.

We obtain Duolingo to be taught to converse with a local speaker of their language. Months later, we’re checking in day by day so we don’t get yelled at by the Owl, we’re determined to maintain our day by day streak energetic…and we will solely say “I discovered a blue ostrich on the library.”

We lie in mattress, waiving our arm above our head like a madman, as a result of our FitBit says we want 500 extra steps to hit 10,000 for the day. (Right here’s the historical past of the 10k step rule by the way in which…)

I as soon as “meditated” each single day for six months in order that I might construct my meditation streak in Headspace. Typically I might even open the app and simply let the meditation play so I obtained credit score for it, though I wasn’t meditating…THE WHOLE REASON I HAD DOWNLOADED THE APP.

We inform ourselves that we need to “learn extra,” however then we monitor what number of books we learn. This incentivizes us to learn books rapidly (with out retaining any of it), as an alternative of tackling larger challenges like Battle & Peace or rereading our favourite books to glean extra classes.

WHY will we need to learn extra? To be taught stuff or to be entertained! The variety of books, or WHICH books, doesn’t matter:

Social media started as a strategy to join with associates. Lately, social media is massive enterprise and the solely advertising and marketing device for a lot of creators. As a result of these corporations monitor “time on app” and “consideration”…social media is now a hellscape of concern.

Probably the most attention-grabbing content material filters to the highest: outrage inducing, factually incorrect, terrible content material designed to enrage and worry monger. Even most of my favourite wellness creators nowadays spend their time making response movies to essentially the most vile wellness misinformation, as a result of that’s the one sort of content material that good points any traction.

(No surprise so many individuals are avoiding the Darkish Forest of the Web!).

All of this stuff weave an interesting tapestry of how the human mind works, and simply how good our brains are at taking a metric and studying the unsuitable lesson from that metric!

What are you measuring?

Nearly all of folks go to NerdFitness.com to “drop extra pounds.”

That is the one metric that everyone is used to monitoring. Each advert talks about find out how to drop extra pounds quick. They see the quantity on the dimensions and let that quantity decide how they really feel about themselves that day.

That is the unsuitable metric to solely give attention to:

We don’t actually need to “drop extra pounds.” What we wish is to lose fats whereas protecting the muscle we have now (or constructing muscle).

If our ONLY purpose is weight reduction, extreme calorie restriction and infinite cardio may lead to a decrease quantity on the dimensions. BUT! If we don’t change our relationship with meals, and eat sufficient of the precise macronutrients and micronutrients, we’ll find yourself feeling torpid, starved, and depressing…after which gorge ourselves as quickly as life will get in the way in which.

If we energy practice whereas consuming sufficient protein and in a caloric deficit, we’ll truly drop extra pounds slower than if we simply starved ourselves and did hours of cardio. BUT, we’ll be dropping fats whereas sustaining muscle.

The size ought to solely be ONE a part of how we consider our progress:

In spite of everything, the quantity on the dimensions goes to fluctuate from day after day:

If we went out to dinner final night time.
if we ate an excessive amount of salt yesterday.
If we’re carrying additional water weight.
If we’re on our interval.
any variety of causes.

So, as soon as we all know that what we select to trace is vital, how will we use this to our benefit?

What to Observe, What NOT to Observe

Keep in mind, that which will get measured will get improved, so let’s be good about what we’re monitoring.

We are able to ask, “What do I REALLY need to occur? Is that this the precise metric for that purpose?”

Attempting to “eat higher”: Observe your protein consumption and variety of fruits/veggies eaten day by day. If these are the primary two issues in your plate for every meal, your weight will begin to shift with out your give attention to it.
Attempting to construct a “seashore physique”? Nice, let’s construct some muscle. Observe your exercises, and write down precisely what number of units and reps. Then, do ONE extra subsequent time. The purpose? Progressive overload for the win! Get stronger,
Need to learn extra? Don’t monitor “books learn,” which could lead to you choosing shorter books or pace studying, however as an alternative monitor “time spent studying.” This may embody audiobooks, rereading outdated books, no matter. Deal with your studying listing like a river, not a to-do listing!

Lastly, there are numerous issues we most likely DON’T want to trace, or we ought to be cautious about when monitoring.

There’s an entire group of biohackers who’re prioritizing monitoring the tiniest of particulars throughout quite a lot of metrics, a lot of which don’t matter, or may lead to hostile outcomes.

Right here’s one thing we get requested about quite a bit:

Except you’re a diabetic and have been suggested by a physician, you don’t want to put on a steady glucose monitor. Short-term glucose spikes after consuming a meal are completely regular.

(This podcast from my buddy Dr. Spencer Nadolsky does an excellent job explaining why you don’t want a glucose monitor until you’re diabetic).

Right here’s one thing I used to trace however deserted:

I used to trace my sleep religiously with an Oura ring and AppleWatch, however then I might get anxious in the course of the night time and fear that I used to be ruining my “sleep rating”…which negatively impacted the very exercise I used to be attempting to enhance by means of monitoring. Lately, I fear far much less about monitoring “good sleep” and simply do what I can to be in mattress for 8ish hours, asleep or not.

And on an even bigger, life philosophy query:

Be cautious of how social media is warping the scorecard you’re utilizing to trace your progress in life! It’s very easy to get sucked into: “Work exhausting to earn a living to spend it on issues we don’t must impress folks we don’t even like” Life success isn’t measured within the dimension of our home, or worth of our automobile, or the quantity in our checking account.

Bringing all of it collectively:

In the case of private growth or well being enchancment, it helps to ask: “What am I optimizing for, and does that truly assist me get the outcome I actually need?”

We are able to then resolve if we’re even taking part in with the precise scorecard and protecting our give attention to the precise metric.

I’d love to listen to from you: what’s a metric you USED to prioritize, however not monitor? And what’s the vital metric that you just’re selecting to prioritize nowadays?

Hit reply on this and let me know!

-Steve