The Tyranny of Numbers - By Thomas J Bevan

The Tyranny of Numbers - By Thomas J Bevan - The Commonplace

added by sari and · updated 3y ago

The concept of efficiency — how much one can accomplish per unit of time (or per dollar, etc.) — requires a quantitative numerator as well as a denominator. It requires a metric. Therefore, it tells us nothing about results we cannot quantify or measure. When we gear our society around efficiency, we produce more and more of the measurable, while t... See more
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ocial media's quantifying metrics aggravate the problem, making expression into a series of discrete items to be counted, ranked. It serves as the infrastructure for a feedback loop that orients expression toward the anxiety of what the numbers will be and accelerates it, as we try to better those numbers, and thereby demonstrate that the self-
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from Social Media Is Not Self-Expression by Rob Horning
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Internet metrics over-value quantity and under-value quality. It’s a measurement problem. For example, platforms can easily calculate how many people read my articles, but they can’t evaluate the quality of those people.
from Algorithmic Blindspots - David Perell by David Perell
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