Metrics: how to handle them responsibly

Many dozens of paragraphs here -- and not a single reference anywhere to any of the humanities. This by Paul Jump illustrates wonk speak perfectly. Just go on and on, emitting many abstractions, citing many others who speak but wonk speak only. But never -- ever -- mention for perspective, human perspective, any novel, poem, song, film, or other work of art. In the world of metrics, all is numbers, all are abstractions -- no one needs any human context. It's gone, dead, and the living dead, the metric-depersonalized living dead totally rule all corporate academe.

Much of the debate was summed up in the 1950's by Goodhart. When we set out to measure something intangible, we resort to a proxy. Goodhart reminded us that when the proxy becomes the target, it ceases to be a good proxy. When we try to measure something as complex and nuanced as impact with a single index which is essentially retrospective and then use that measure to direct future research, it is bound to end in tears.