Quotes About Measurement

Anything you need to quantify can be measured in some way that is superior to not measuring it at all. —Gilb's Law

The commonplace notion that presumes measurements are exact quantities ignores the usefulness of simply reducing uncertainty, especially if eliminating uncertainty is not feasible (as is usually the case).

If we incorrectly think that measurement means meeting some nearly unachievable standard of certainty, then few things will be measurable even in the physical sciences.

The first 100 samples reduce uncertainty much more than the second 100. In fact, even the first 10 samples tell you a lot more than the next 10. The initial state of uncertainty tells you a lot about how to measure it.

For all practical decision-making purposes, we need to treat measurement as observations that quantitatively reduce uncertainty. A mere reduction, not necessarily elimination, of uncertainty will suffice for a measurement.

measure what matters, make better decisions.

One of our measurement mentors, Enrico Fermi, was an early user of what was later called a "Monte Carlo simulation.

1. Key result indicators (KRIs) tell you how you have done in a perspective or critical success factor. 2. Result indicators (RIs) tell you what you have done. 3. Performance indicators (PIs) tell you what to do. 4. KPIs tell you what to do to increase performance dramatically. EXHIBIT 1.1 Four Types of Performance Measures

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

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.

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

We test students right after they read something mostly to ensure that they have in fact read it. From this, many have drawn the erroneous conclusion that the only good that can be extracted from their reading is that which can be displayed on or measured by a test. This is wildly inaccurate. Most of the good your reading and education has done for you is not something you can recall at all.

We are like fruitflies, measuring everything in terms of our own lifespan. But since our lifespans are so short, our perspective is entirely wrong. God, who inhabits eternity, sees things differently. He knows that our lives are just a mist. We should trust Him. It was not that long ago that Jesus came and it will not be that long before He returns.

To be sure that we are not just falling for the Halo Effect, we really need a different measure of performance altogether—one that assesses individual skill directly rather than by inferring it from outcomes that might be determined by forces beyond the individual's control.

Mintzberg's emergent strategy, Peretti's mullet strategy, crowdsourcing, and field experiments—are really just variations on the same general theme of "measuring and reacting.

In other words, the shift from "predict and control" to "measure and react" is not just technological—although technology is needed—but psychological.

But whenever we find ourselves describing someone's ability in terms of societal measures of success—prizes, wealth, fancy titles—rather than in terms of what they are capable of doing, we ought to worry that we are deceiving ourselves. Put another way, the cynic's question, if you're so smart, why aren't you rich?

In real life a right-angled triangle is very unlikely to have a square on its hypotenuse.

The global network of DNA-based life emits ultra-weak radio waves, which are currently at the limit of measurement, but which we can nonetheless perceive...in hallucinations and dreams.

A life isn't measured in hours and minutes. It's the quality, not the length.

A dent was found in the upper frame of the windshield. This too was measured and observed. Frazier thought that a bit of flying metal might have hit it.* Inch by inch, the FBI men examined the exterior of the automobile,

He placed the bullet into a device. "Just as I thought," he said. "This is not 7.35. It is 6.5 millimeter. Did the Secret Service man know which stretcher it was on?" "No," Todd said. "The