#goodhartslaw — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #goodhartslaw, aggregated by home.social.
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My government's favourite trick for gaming inflation numbers (also practiced by many other nations) is omitting "highly volatile" elements from the calculations. Specifically, food and energy.
Because the average person spends basically none of their money on those two items, right? And the prices of those shoot up crazily, but their prices also drop like a stone the next month, making the consumer come out even, right?
Goodhart's Law, etc, etc.
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My government's favourite trick for gaming inflation numbers (also practiced by many other nations) is omitting "highly volatile" elements from the calculations. Specifically, food and energy.
Because the average person spends basically none of their money on those two items, right? And the prices of those shoot up crazily, but their prices also drop like a stone the next month, making the consumer come out even, right?
Goodhart's Law, etc, etc.
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My government's favourite trick for gaming inflation numbers (also practiced by many other nations) is omitting "highly volatile" elements from the calculations. Specifically, food and energy.
Because the average person spends basically none of their money on those two items, right? And the prices of those shoot up crazily, but their prices also drop like a stone the next month, making the consumer come out even, right?
Goodhart's Law, etc, etc.
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My government's favourite trick for gaming inflation numbers (also practiced by many other nations) is omitting "highly volatile" elements from the calculations. Specifically, food and energy.
Because the average person spends basically none of their money on those two items, right? And the prices of those shoot up crazily, but their prices also drop like a stone the next month, making the consumer come out even, right?
Goodhart's Law, etc, etc.
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My government's favourite trick for gaming inflation numbers (also practiced by many other nations) is omitting "highly volatile" elements from the calculations. Specifically, food and energy.
Because the average person spends basically none of their money on those two items, right? And the prices of those shoot up crazily, but their prices also drop like a stone the next month, making the consumer come out even, right?
Goodhart's Law, etc, etc.
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Goodhart’s Law in action 🙄:
“More! More! More! Tech Workers Max Out Their A.I. Use.”, The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/technology/tokenmaxxing-ai-agents.html?unlocked_article_code=1.UlA.Wda2.-3Rz1wP8LBVw&smid=url-share).
H/T: Dare Obasanjo
#AI #AITokenUsage #GoodhartsLaw #Metric #TokenMaxing #LLMs #Measure #FakeProductivity #Waste #Dashboard #Leaderboard #Work
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Goodhart’s Law in action 🙄:
“More! More! More! Tech Workers Max Out Their A.I. Use.”, The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/technology/tokenmaxxing-ai-agents.html?unlocked_article_code=1.UlA.Wda2.-3Rz1wP8LBVw&smid=url-share).
H/T: Dare Obasanjo
#AI #AITokenUsage #GoodhartsLaw #Metric #TokenMaxing #LLMs #Measure #FakeProductivity #Waste #Dashboard #Leaderboard #Work
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Goodhart’s Law in action 🙄:
“More! More! More! Tech Workers Max Out Their A.I. Use.”, The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/technology/tokenmaxxing-ai-agents.html?unlocked_article_code=1.UlA.Wda2.-3Rz1wP8LBVw&smid=url-share).
H/T: Dare Obasanjo
#AI #AITokenUsage #GoodhartsLaw #Metric #TokenMaxing #LLMs #Measure #FakeProductivity #Waste #Dashboard #Leaderboard #Work
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Goodhart’s Law in action 🙄:
“More! More! More! Tech Workers Max Out Their A.I. Use.”, The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/technology/tokenmaxxing-ai-agents.html?unlocked_article_code=1.UlA.Wda2.-3Rz1wP8LBVw&smid=url-share).
H/T: Dare Obasanjo
#AI #AITokenUsage #GoodhartsLaw #Metric #TokenMaxing #LLMs #Measure #FakeProductivity #Waste #Dashboard #Leaderboard #Work
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"Well, sure, all our sandwiches now come with shit. Shit is a very popular topping with our customers, so we thought we'd make it easy for all of you to get what you want. We determined it was too confusing for customers if some sandwiches came with shit, and some didn't, so we simplified our menu to make sure you could find exactly what you need. No, you can't order a sandwich 'but hold the shit'. After all, if you're that dead-set against eating shit, you can just order your sandwich and then eat around the shit."
This is a post about #Microsoft and #Google.
#Microslop #ShitSandwich #shit #EatShit #CoPilot #Gemini #AI #LLM #NobodyWants #bubble #GoodhartsLaw #Goodhart #metric #software #users
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"Well, sure, all our sandwiches now come with shit. Shit is a very popular topping with our customers, so we thought we'd make it easy for all of you to get what you want. We determined it was too confusing for customers if some sandwiches came with shit, and some didn't, so we simplified our menu to make sure you could find exactly what you need. No, you can't order a sandwich 'but hold the shit'. After all, if you're that dead-set against eating shit, you can just order your sandwich and then eat around the shit."
This is a post about #Microsoft and #Google.
#Microslop #ShitSandwich #shit #EatShit #CoPilot #Gemini #AI #LLM #NobodyWants #bubble #GoodhartsLaw #Goodhart #metric #software #users
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"Well, sure, all our sandwiches now come with shit. Shit is a very popular topping with our customers, so we thought we'd make it easy for all of you to get what you want. We determined it was too confusing for customers if some sandwiches came with shit, and some didn't, so we simplified our menu to make sure you could find exactly what you need. No, you can't order a sandwich 'but hold the shit'. After all, if you're that dead-set against eating shit, you can just order your sandwich and then eat around the shit."
This is a post about #Microsoft and #Google.
#Microslop #ShitSandwich #shit #EatShit #CoPilot #Gemini #AI #LLM #NobodyWants #bubble #GoodhartsLaw #Goodhart #metric #software #users
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"Well, sure, all our sandwiches now come with shit. Shit is a very popular topping with our customers, so we thought we'd make it easy for all of you to get what you want. We determined it was too confusing for customers if some sandwiches came with shit, and some didn't, so we simplified our menu to make sure you could find exactly what you need. No, you can't order a sandwich 'but hold the shit'. After all, if you're that dead-set against eating shit, you can just order your sandwich and then eat around the shit."
This is a post about #Microsoft and #Google.
#Microslop #ShitSandwich #shit #EatShit #CoPilot #Gemini #AI #LLM #NobodyWants #bubble #GoodhartsLaw #Goodhart #metric #software #users
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"Well, sure, all our sandwiches now come with shit. Shit is a very popular topping with our customers, so we thought we'd make it easy for all of you to get what you want. We determined it was too confusing for customers if some sandwiches came with shit, and some didn't, so we simplified our menu to make sure you could find exactly what you need. No, you can't order a sandwich 'but hold the shit'. After all, if you're that dead-set against eating shit, you can just order your sandwich and then eat around the shit."
This is a post about #Microsoft and #Google.
#Microslop #ShitSandwich #shit #EatShit #CoPilot #Gemini #AI #LLM #NobodyWants #bubble #GoodhartsLaw #Goodhart #metric #software #users
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Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow – No trackers, no ads. Black type, white background. Privacy policy: we don't collect or retain any data at all ever period. [Unofficial] @[email protected] ·Pluralistic: Big Tech joins the race to build the world's heaviest airplane (09 Dec 2025)
https://web.brid.gy/r/https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/09/temporarily-embarrassed-founders/
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Richard Charkin on Goodhart’s Law: The Measurement Trap
In his newest column, Richard Charkin applies the principle that when a metric becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure to today's publishing industry.
The post Richard Charkin on Goodhart’s Law: The Measurement Trap appeared first on Publishing Perspectives.
https://publishingperspectives.com/2025/12/richard-charkin-on-goodharts-law-the-measurement-trap/ -
"OKRs graphs don't make your teams more focused. Repeated conversations about the goals do."
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From: blenderdumbass . org
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
Read or listen: https://blenderdumbass.org/articles/the_goodhart_s_law_of_child_abuse
#goodhartslaw #childabuse #politics #paternalism #ageism #education
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"AI – the ultimate bullshit machine – can produce a better 5PE than any student can, because the point of the 5PE isn't to be intellectually curious or rigorous, it's to produce a standardized output that can be analyzed using a standardized rubric.
I've been writing YA novels and doing school visits for long enough to cement my understanding that kids are actually pretty darned clever. They don't graduate from high school thinking that their mastery of the 5PE is in any way good or useful, or that they're learning about literature by making five marginal observations per page when they read a book.
Given all this, why wouldn't you ask an AI to do your homework? That homework is already the revenge of Goodhart's Law, a target that has ruined its metric. Your homework performance says nothing useful about your mastery of the subject, so why not let the AI write it. Hell, if you're a smart, motivated kid, then letting the AI write your bullshit 5PEs might give you time to write something good.
Teachers aren't to blame here. They have to teach to the test, or they will fail their students (literally, because they will have to assign a failing grade to them, and figuratively, because a student who gets a failing grade will face all kinds of punishments). Teachers' unions – who consistently fight against standardization and in favor of their members discretion to practice their educational skills based on kids' individual needs – are the best hope we have:"
https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/11/five-paragraph-essay/#targets-r-us
#AI #GenerativeAI #LLMs #Chatbots #Schools #Education #Grading #GoodhartsLaw
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"En 1920, voyant les cas de peste se multiplier, la Ville de Paris a annoncé qu’elle verserait une prime à toute personne qui lui présenterait un cadavre de rat. Entre septembre 1920 et juillet 1921, 500 935 rats ont été tués. Six mois plus tard, les autorités changeaient leur fusil d’épaule en voyant que des gens avaient commencé à élever des rats pour revendre leur cadavre."
Un exemple de la loi de #Goodhart ?
https://www.courrierinternational.com/long-format/dans-nos-archives-a-paris-le-rat-le-bol-des-habitants_210771_1 (derrière un #paywall )
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Company year #OKRs
Decrease time to market in software development by 20%.
I am just thinking if I ever heard better textbook example of #GoodhartsLaw and #metricFixation this is not going to happen well, can’t see that huge pile of technical debt at the end of year. -
@annie @baldur Very reminiscient of Goodhart's law 👍
See also this excellent blog post by Jascha:
Too much efficiency makes everything worse: overfitting and the strong version of Goodhart's law:
https://sohl-dickstein.github.io/2022/11/06/strong-Goodhart.html
This is transferable to so many domains and #society at large!
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@annie @baldur Very reminiscient of Goodhart's law 👍
See also this excellent blog post by Jascha:
Too much efficiency makes everything worse: overfitting and the strong version of Goodhart's law:
https://sohl-dickstein.github.io/2022/11/06/strong-Goodhart.html
This is transferable to so many domains and #society at large!
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@annie @baldur Very reminiscient of Goodhart's law 👍
See also this excellent blog post by Jascha:
Too much efficiency makes everything worse: overfitting and the strong version of Goodhart's law:
https://sohl-dickstein.github.io/2022/11/06/strong-Goodhart.html
This is transferable to so many domains and #society at large!
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@annie @baldur Very reminiscient of Goodhart's law 👍
See also this excellent blog post by Jascha:
Too much efficiency makes everything worse: overfitting and the strong version of Goodhart's law:
https://sohl-dickstein.github.io/2022/11/06/strong-Goodhart.html
This is transferable to so many domains and #society at large!
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@annie @baldur Very reminiscient of Goodhart's law 👍
See also this excellent blog post by Jascha:
Too much efficiency makes everything worse: overfitting and the strong version of Goodhart's law:
https://sohl-dickstein.github.io/2022/11/06/strong-Goodhart.html
This is transferable to so many domains and #society at large!
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Churnalism, enshittification, and a bunch of other online deterioration phenomena (plus a mention of the Potemkin news site that spread misinfo during the Southport riot).
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/technology/internet/67864/dead-internet-theory-ai#internet #enshittification #churnalism #media #socialMedia #advertising #misinfo #incentives #GoodhartsLaw
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You all remember Campbell’s law: when a metric becomes a target, people do stupid shit.
Citation metrics are the tail wagging the academic dog. Today I got a spam email for a new service that, as best as I can tell, will for a price spam your colleagues for you in hopes that they will cite your papers.
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The other remarkable thing is the way that these AIs have leap-frogged to the top of Bloom's taxonomy. I think, though my mind could be changed, that it is accurate to say that they are able create original work (but not, mind you, understand what they've created.)
That seems scary because it gets around the sorts of prompts we might have used for online open book exams in the past.
Here I ask the AI to write a fable about a group of #shoebills who succumb to #GoodhartsLaw.
IMO, remarkable.
