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The Quantified Society: How our obsession with performance measurement shapes the world we live in

Book by Berend van der Kolk · 6 quotes · Measurement, Gaming, Indicatorism

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The Quantified Society: How our obsession with performance measurement shapes the world we live in Quotes

“Our desire not to be inferior to others in terms of performance, combined with the idea that we can freely choose to go the extra mile, can lead to self-exploitation. We force ourselves to go beyond what is good for us — until we burn out.”

“I distinguish five types of indicatorism: 1. performing easy, indicator-improving tasks; 2. avoiding difficult, indicator-worsening tasks; 3. improving an indicator for the short term, at the expense of long-term goals; 4. ignoring tasks not covered by an indicator; 5. manipulating or cheating to improve an indicator.”

“In The Quantified Society, I explore why we measure so much and what this does to us, individually and as a society. I discuss unwanted side effects, such as a blind belief in the objectivity of numbers, but also measurement’s ability to help us focus our attention on something important.”