Every second.

The joke

The new boss has the mug, and the mug has already decided. The annual review was bad enough. This one never ends.

The irony

Software can measure everything, so it's tempting to measure everything, all the time. But people watched every second don't get better at the work. They get better at the number. That isn't a flaw in people. It's what any system does when the measure becomes the target, and that includes AI.

So what?

Goodhart's law runs right through our papers. If work is bought by its output, the output will be gamed. Our proposed defences are partial and untested: measure the next step, not just the product; sample the product yourself; keep failures on the record; and watch the gap between what's declared and what's verified. Constant measurement without those is just a faster way to fool yourself.

If you were measured every second, which number would you start gaming first? Tell us in the comments, or respond to the paper.

Read more

• Goodhart's Law and the fifty terrible leads
• Work is coming apart

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