Quotes from Douglas W. Hubbard

If you don't know what to measure, measure anyway. You'll learn what to measure.

whether a finding is statistically significant is not the same thing as whether your current state of uncertainty is less than it was before or what the economic value of that uncertainty reduction would be.

We find no sense in talking about something unless we specify how we measure it; a definition by the method of measuring a quantity is the one sure way of avoiding talking nonsense. . . . —Sir Hermann Bondi, mathematician and cosmologist3

When presented new information, we have no other option than to relate it to what we already know—there is no blank space in our minds within which new information can be stored so as not to "contaminate" it with existing information. —Clifford Konold, Scientific Reasoning Research Institute, University of Massachusetts

The fact is that the preference for ignorance over even marginal reductions in ignorance is never the moral high ground. If decisions are made under a self-imposed state of higher uncertainty, policy makers (or even businesses like, say, airplane manufacturers) are betting on our lives with a higher chance of erroneous allocation of limited resources. In measurement, as in many other human endeavors, ignorance is not only wasteful but can also be dangerous.

the objection to using stats boils down to nothing more than an irrational fear of numbers causing some to believe math somehow detracts from understanding or appreciation

A cybersecurity expert can become well versed in technical details such as conducting penetration tests, using encryption tools, setting up firewalls, and much more—and still be unable to realistically assess their own skills at forecasting future events.

what makes a measurement of high value is a lot of uncertainty combined with a high cost of being wrong.

Result indicators that lie beneath KRIs could include: Net profit on key product lines Sales made yesterday Customer complaints from key customers Hospital bed utilization in week