The Tyranny of Metrics: 8 key ideas
The core ideas of The Tyranny of Metrics, each in under a minute, written in our own words. Want the full depth? Get the book.
- IDEA 1 OF 8
Measuring everything can backfire
Muller, a historian, argues that organisations have become obsessed with measuring performance through numbers.
This metric fixation, he says, often produces worse results instead of better ones. Numbers can help, yet they can also distract from the real purpose of the work.
- IDEA 2 OF 8
Numbers can replace judgement
Muller explains that metrics are often used to replace the judgement of experienced professionals.
Yet many important things, such as good teaching or care, are hard to capture in numbers.
- IDEA 3 OF 8
Measured targets get distorted
Muller describes the problem, associated with Donald Campbell and Charles Goodhart, that once a number is used to reward or punish, people start changing their behaviour to hit it.
The number then stops measuring what it was meant to.
- IDEA 4 OF 8
People game the system
Muller shows how people focus on what is counted and neglect what is not.
Some even manipulate data to meet targets. When a number becomes the target, people chase the number instead of the real goal.
- IDEA 5 OF 8
Schools teach to the test
Muller describes how school testing regimes led teachers to focus narrowly on exams.
In some cases, scores were falsified. Subjects that are not tested are often given less time, even though they may matter just as much.
- IDEA 6 OF 8
Hospitals avoid risky patients
Muller describes how publishing surgeons' success rates can lead some to avoid difficult cases.
Patients who most need help may suffer. In his view, the pressure to look good on paper can outweigh the needs of the sickest people.
- IDEA 7 OF 8
Police and armies chase numbers
Muller shows how crime statistics and body counts distorted policing and military efforts.
Numbers became goals in themselves. Officers and commanders learned to produce the figures that were rewarded, even when they did not match reality.
- IDEA 8 OF 8
Metrics can still help
Muller does not reject measurement entirely.
He argues that metrics work best when used by professionals themselves to learn, not to punish. Judgement based on experience, he says, should guide how the numbers are read.
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