moneyball
on hyper-optimisation - what we gain and what we lose from it
moneyball
The more we reduce our experiences—transcendent, fraught, delightful, frightening, whatever they may be—to a series of stark data points and engineered touch points, the more we chase the magic out of them.
Tim Leberecht • The Business Romantic
We’ve sacrificed nuanced judgment for a trend report without a methodology.
We’ve sacrificed white space thinking for whatever the average is doing.
And we’ve sacrificed the attributes we care most about (resonance, loyalty, fandom, influence and impact) for the metrics easily available to us (clicks, views and follows).
As Rick Rubin puts it,
We’ve sacrificed white space thinking for whatever the average is doing.
And we’ve sacrificed the attributes we care most about (resonance, loyalty, fandom, influence and impact) for the metrics easily available to us (clicks, views and follows).
As Rick Rubin puts it,
“If you... See more
Matt Klein • Self-Sabotaging Innovation: The Art of Doing Dumb Shit
Generally speaking, quantification and the logic of optimization which it encourages tend to transform our field of experience into points of aggression, as the sociologist Hartmut Rosa has aptly put it. Data-driven optimization is, in this sense, a way of perceiving the world. And what may matter most about this is not necessarily what it allows... See more
theconvivialsociety.substack.com • The Limits of Optimization
Are we undertaking the project of breaking down big giant ideas like ‘i feel weird and alone sometimes’ or ‘Why does life feel like its passing me by’ into smaller more manageable ideas because that’s a helpful framework to think about them or because its a helpful market framework to sell weird little solutions like fuckin headspace and better... See more
Can you be my friend.com
Cultural Moneyballism, in this light, sacrifices exuberance for the sake of formulaic symmetry. It sacrifices diversity for the sake of familiarity. It solves finite games at the expense of infinite games. Its genius dulls the rough edges of entertainment. I think that’s worth caring about. It is definitely worth asking the question: In a world
... See moreThe Illusion of Progress : Action Bias leads us to believe that doing something – anything – is better than doing nothing , even when the action doesn’t actually move us forward. We equate busyness with productivity, mistaking motion for progress, and perceive novelty as innately valuable.
Matt Klein • Self-Sabotaging Innovation: The Art of Doing Dumb Shit
You can make a thing so perfect that it’s ruined.
Derek Thompson • What Moneyball-for-Everything Has Done to American Culture
I believe the “ tyranny of numbers ” has atrophied people’s abilities to listen to their body. Numbers can be helpful, but often cause me to lose the plot. I’ve found that I feel better when I let my body tell me what I really want, instead of the non-actionable anxiety associated with metrics.